The paywalls are coming

Forums › Off topic › The paywalls are coming

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

4123 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 833
Inactive user

#1040716 9-May-2014 11:01

myndlyz: Hey guys

Im not sure if anyone else has noticed this, I read the Sydney Morning Herald, Telegraph and other papers online daily, two papers I have mentioned have a paywall, if I read them in a normal Chrome window, after 10 articles, it doesnt allow you to read further.

Once I switch to incognito, then those same sites are available with no limit on the number of articles, so the paywall does not take effect at all

Not only that, if you read the SMH then you can read the same crap a couple days later on Stuff :)

andrewNZ

2487 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1461
Inactive user

#1040721 9-May-2014 11:04

kiwitrc:
myndlyz: Hey guys

Im not sure if anyone else has noticed this, I read the Sydney Morning Herald, Telegraph and other papers online daily, two papers I have mentioned have a paywall, if I read them in a normal Chrome window, after 10 articles, it doesnt allow you to read further.

Once I switch to incognito, then those same sites are available with no limit on the number of articles, so the paywall does not take effect at all

Not only that, if you read the SMH then you can read the same crap a couple days later on Stuff :)

Stuff makes me want to self harm.

Geektastic

18009 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 8465

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1040722 9-May-2014 11:08

andrewNZ: I imagine the NZ Herald paywall is going to open the floodgates.

I'm not too sure how I feel about this... If I have to pay for news, I'd expect good quality, factual news.

Times of London. The only one I will pay for.

The Daily Telegraph has a soft paywall that allows 20 article views. Get around it by using Private browser settings or deleting Telegraph cookies...!

Geektastic

18009 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 8465

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1040723 9-May-2014 11:09

Bee: When (if) this happens, I'll just go back to reading the hard copy for free at work...

There are other sources for (the same) news as well, sources that are likely to remain free...

For world news, the BBC website remains free and is likely to do so.

Geektastic

18009 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 8465

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1040724 9-May-2014 11:12

KiwiNZ:
TimA: NZ Herald....
Reports terrible stories based on opinion.
Statistics they find are extremely bias to the party they support.
They all seem to use the old CTRL+C and CTRL+V trick when posting stories that are also available on other sites.
Bloated with horrible ads
Only tell us of people that have been murdered or someone convicted of something or over hyped weather conditions.
Who would EVER pay to look at a website that provides you with nothing that would ever benefit your life?
I wouldnt. Nor would i let their data mining app on my phone.

Ones perception of accuracy is often swayed by ones own bias with regards to the subject matter. Fact is fickle.

Not exactly. Fact is, by definition, rigid and unassailable in any way...! It is for example a fact that the sea is comprised of water or that humans are air breathing mammals. It is not a fact that, say, selling off SEO's is or is not a good idea.

Fred99

13684 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 10018

#1040731 9-May-2014 11:21

People will still read news from the net "for free", and often very partisan quasi-news "blog" sites are positioned to take up the slack, Kiwiblog, The Standard, Whaleoil, etc, as well as offshore hosted sites with an agenda and so far some immunity from the reach of NZ laws, Lauda Finem is one example.
When radio and TV dominated, then most western democratic nations ran public broadcasting services. Sure that state-funded model always resulted in accusation of bias, but generally it was pretty neutral, if lacking the incentive to find "scoops" - some of which are important. TV (1) and RNZ news sites are pretty half-hearted affairs - with little depth (RNZ perhaps less so - but only through links to audio content). Perhaps that needs to change.
I hope the "paywall" model is either a complete failure - or an outstanding success (compelling everybody to want to pay for access to quality news). In-between won't do. Good democracy depends on having a well-informed public - and good investigative journalism.

New World

Shop on-line at New World now for your groceries (affiliate link).

reven

3748 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 874

Trusted

#1040738 9-May-2014 11:28

I'm completely fine with paywalls, I think theyre a great idea. The casual reader who gets taken to a place via a link, gets to read it and no issue. People who are actively consuming a site pay a subscription once they reach x many pages a day or whatever it is.

As long as the subscription isnt ridiculous, maybe between $10 - $20 a month, possibly you could subscribe to parts of the paper, eg if you dont care about sport, dont pay for that section.

DarthKermit

5346 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3317

Trusted

#1040739 9-May-2014 11:35

!!!!!!!ALL BLACK'S COUSIN CONVICTED OF DRUNK DRIVING!!!!!!

"News" like that puts me off the news.

Whatifthespacekeyhadneverbeeninvented?

reven

3748 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 874

Trusted

#1040740 9-May-2014 11:37

DarthKermit: !!!!!!!ALL BLACK'S COUSIN CONVICTED OF DRUNK DRIVING!!!!!!

"News" like that puts me off the news.

agreed, but if that puts you off and you dont read that site, you wont be effected by the paywall because you wont have visited the number of pages required to trigger the paywall :)

MikeB4

MikeB4
18775 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 12766

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#1040747 9-May-2014 11:54

Geektastic:
KiwiNZ:
TimA: NZ Herald....
Reports terrible stories based on opinion.
Statistics they find are extremely bias to the party they support.
They all seem to use the old CTRL+C and CTRL+V trick when posting stories that are also available on other sites.
Bloated with horrible ads
Only tell us of people that have been murdered or someone convicted of something or over hyped weather conditions.
Who would EVER pay to look at a website that provides you with nothing that would ever benefit your life?
I wouldnt. Nor would i let their data mining app on my phone.

Ones perception of accuracy is often swayed by ones own bias with regards to the subject matter. Fact is fickle.

Not exactly. Fact is, by definition, rigid and unassailable in any way...! It is for example a fact that the sea is comprised of water or that humans are air breathing mammals. It is not a fact that, say, selling off SEO's is or is not a good idea.

The sea is not comprised of water, water is but a part, see what I mean?

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

jonathan18

7415 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2850

ID Verified

Trusted

#1040752 9-May-2014 12:02

Geektastic:
KiwiNZ: Ones perception of accuracy is often swayed by ones own bias with regards to the subject matter. Fact is fickle.

Not exactly. Fact is, by definition, rigid and unassailable in any way...! It is for example a fact that the sea is comprised of water or that humans are air breathing mammals. It is not a fact that, say, selling off SEO's is or is not a good idea.

When I read this line I assumed it was meant with a a bit of irony , as in "fact" is fickle, or that facts can be cherry-picked to support one's argument, or that the selection of some facts at the expense of others can be misleading... Many people - some politicians, lawyers, second-hand car salesmen for starters - may stick to "facts" but can still be misleading or inaccurate.

Samsung

Shop now on Samsung phones, tablets, TVs and more (affiliate link).

surfisup1000

5288 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2159

#1040755 9-May-2014 12:06

Inphinity:
KiwiNZ: Before electronic media we paid for news inclusive of Advertising, it was called the Newspaper subscription or cover charge. It kinda baffles me that many think just because its on the interwebz it should be free.

In my opinion, the standard of reporting and journalism has decreased substantially though. I'd pay if I had any confidence in the accuracy, quality and neutrality of the reporting, but I don't. Many of the articles are, as far as I'm concerned, simply additional advertising.

The best bit about the nz herald website are the opinion columns. You can get the news for free from many places.

Fran OSullivan, Bryan Gaynor, John Armstrong, Rodney Hide , Bob Jones , etc.

The news reporting is shocking, in depth analysis is missing.

But, the blogosphere has taken over that role to some degree with sites like whaleoil, kiwiblog etc.

Every time some poor beneficiary wails about their predicament (usually polictically motivated) whaleoil investigates the background and reported facts and he always finds the story to be a lie (I think that leaving out relevant facts is the same as lying). You just don't get that critical analysis from the papers.

jonathan18

7415 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2850

ID Verified

Trusted

#1040760 9-May-2014 12:24

surfisup1000: Every time some poor beneficiary wails about their predicament (usually polictically motivated) whaleoil investigates the background and reported facts and he always finds the story to be a lie (I think that leaving out relevant facts is the same as lying). You just don't get that critical analysis from the papers.

And you would hold up Cameron Slater as the model of citizen journalism??!!

Sites like Whale Oil may serve a purpose as long as one acknowledges the writers and contributors have a particular axe to grind, and in no way are interested in presenting an un-jaundiced perspective. Slater falls into this category more than possibly any other (prominent) blog/site in this country - witness the relationship betwen him and Collins.

As someone said a few posts back - when an outlet's opinions tend to line up with your own it's somewhat trickier to acknowledge this bias, and one is more likely to accept its content as incontrovertible "fact".

MikeB4

MikeB4
18775 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 12766

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#1040774 9-May-2014 12:32

I believe the Fourth Estate has struggled to adapt to modern media especially in NZ, Stuff and NZ Herald are not exactly glowing examples. However that does not mean they are incapable of growth and evolution, it will need a change in leadership to achieve it.
I don't have a problem with the introduction of paywalls as long as the revenue is put to service improvement.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

WyleECoyoteNZ

1055 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 372

#1040787 9-May-2014 12:42

New to this country, but has been like this in the UK for at least 1 news site for quite a while.

The Times Online (http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/) has Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson as a column writer. Before this content used to be free to the reader, but now this requires a login account, and a fee associated with that

The headlines look to be open access, however anything else looks to require a login account.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5