NZ Herald to introduce a paywall this year.

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#1962483 22-Feb-2018 20:57

mattwnz:

If NZ herald is, then wouldn't stuff follow? Also this is on top of all the small newspapers which are closing down. Haven't newspapers always largely got their money from advertising? But it the online world, most advertising money goes offshore to google and facebook, and not that much tax seems to be paid back into the NZ economy from this. Google seems to harvest a lot of news from these websites too, which links back to these website, so if they paywall the stories they may not get those link backs.

Agree, its all got lost. A paper with news and ads is fine. But it goes too far, it becomes infotainment. The paper version of Google/Facebook.

Perhaps paper news may make a re invention of real news, low cost, to real people. Uber driver throwing papers that have ads but NO infotainment next, how novel!

Bottom line is that the internet is great, but its not great at all things.

People yak that the internet should be free of control, etc. But in reality its all about control and manipulation. Im not saying that as a greenie slash ban the bomb, slash Woodstock person, but the reality is the internet for all is being used as a tool by most.

Geektastic

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#1962522 22-Feb-2018 21:41

tdgeek:

mattwnz:

If NZ herald is, then wouldn't stuff follow? Also this is on top of all the small newspapers which are closing down. Haven't newspapers always largely got their money from advertising? But it the online world, most advertising money goes offshore to google and facebook, and not that much tax seems to be paid back into the NZ economy from this. Google seems to harvest a lot of news from these websites too, which links back to these website, so if they paywall the stories they may not get those link backs.

Agree, its all got lost. A paper with news and ads is fine. But it goes too far, it becomes infotainment. The paper version of Google/Facebook.

Perhaps paper news may make a re invention of real news, low cost, to real people. Uber driver throwing papers that have ads but NO infotainment next, how novel!

Bottom line is that the internet is great, but its not great at all things.

People yak that the internet should be free of control, etc. But in reality its all about control and manipulation. Im not saying that as a greenie slash ban the bomb, slash Woodstock person, but the reality is the internet for all is being used as a tool by most.

Several major UK papers are paywall, except the Grauniad.

They argue that you'd have to pay for the paper version so why should you get the other version without paying, which seems reasonable.

I have subs to the Times and the Telegraph. The difference between them and the Herald (aside from the heavy hitter journalists etc) is that both of them are true newspapers with a good world coverage (although the Telegraph is going downhill since it's heyday). The Herald is really the equivalent of a glorified local paper - it barely mentions much outside Auckland, never mind much in depth about the rest of the world.

And as we are all agreed, there is far too much 'cat up a tree' and 'the cat up the tree - how the internet reacted' drivel in there as well.

Paywall? That just equals "Goodbye Herald" I suspect.

I have not watched TV news for over a year and really do not notice. If I had not read the Herald website for a year I suspect I would notice even less.

Aredwood

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#1962528 22-Feb-2018 21:50

Geektastic:

I have not watched TV news for over a year and really do not notice. If I had not read the Herald website for a year I suspect I would notice even less.

I virtually never read the herald or stuff. No surprises that I only found the NBR link.

sonyxperiageek

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#1962546 22-Feb-2018 22:15

ockel:
Long long long overdue. If it had been introduced years ago and persevered with the maybe the journalistic talent wouldnt have left the building. If the NY Times (a Murdoch company) can show that a paywall can start to gain traction then maybe there is hope beyond the dumb-downed clickbait we're left with.

And the sooner that Stuff introduces a paywall the better - both for journalistic content and the hope that it doesnt disappear completely. The degree of profit decline at Stuff is alarming. Almost as bad as the profit decline at TVNZ. NZME is a bit like Mediaworks in that the only thing keeping some companies afloat is earnings from their radio businesses.

Good. I hope Stuff profits decline to the point where they go away.

Almost the same could be said about the Herald.... Bloody stupid full screen ads every time I visit.... Ever increasing size of the footer ad.... The obligatory middle page ad that fills up the entire screen again.... Almost every article is written by the daily mail....spelling/grammar mistakes.... Clickbait sh1t... I could go on and on!

Sony

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#1962555 22-Feb-2018 22:24

One way that I've successfully stopped a lot of the clickbait on NZHerald is a null route outbrain, taboola and revcontent.

(The other is that I just don't visit either NZHerald or Stuff, and find RNZ a better news outlet).

JimmyH

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#1962574 22-Feb-2018 22:35

sonyxperiageek:

Good. I hope Stuff profits decline to the point where they go away.

Almost the same could be said about the Herald.... Bloody stupid full screen ads every time I visit.... Ever increasing size of the footer ad.... The obligatory middle page ad that fills up the entire screen again.... Almost every article is written by the daily mail....spelling/grammar mistakes.... Clickbait sh1t... I could go on and on!

I generally whitelist local sites that I trust in my adblocker, as I don't want to see them disappear. However, I removed the Herald from the whitelist, as the ads and promoted stories were intolerable. Having said that, since they changed their website layout to the new one, I rarely go there - adblocked or not.

Sideface

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#1962575 22-Feb-2018 22:40

NZ Herald to introduce a paywall this year.

An excellent idea.

The NZ Herald is now so bad that the public should be paid to read it.

A once-great newspaper is now just click-bait.

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ajw

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#1962577 22-Feb-2018 22:41

The free membership of the Lower Hutt library gives me free access to.

https://www.pressreader.com/

mattwnz

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#1962580 22-Feb-2018 22:46

alasta:

tdgeek:

For sure. I mainly go to Stuff. Newshub is useless. Id be happy to pay for a NEWS website. Right now I get a free website that I have to manually filter for the news.

As a taxpayer you are already paying for a proper news site - it's called RNZ.

Or, alternatively, go to Newsroom and set up a contribution to their Presspatron account.

The thing is that the commercial online websites republish RNZ stories, so they are benefiting from taxpayer funded content. I wonder if they will also put that content beind the paywall. Sort of reminds me a little bit of TVNZ providing sky with old NZ TV content for the heartland channel, which you could only see if you subscribed to Sky. Although the RNZ content will also be available for free on their website. I wonder if this move has anything to do with RNZ getting a lot more funding due to the change in government.

cadman

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#1962601 23-Feb-2018 00:46

Given the quality of their content I presume in this instance a paywall means they'll be paying us?

Dulouz

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#1962611 23-Feb-2018 06:22

There is bugger all 'news' to be found anymore. NZ Herald/Stuff = outrage and click bait. RNZ = left wing biased, social justice-obsessed. If you want to be happy and content stay away from them all.

Amanon

Dratsab

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#1962613 23-Feb-2018 06:42

ockel: And the sooner that Stuff introduces a paywall the better - both for journalistic content and the hope that it doesnt disappear completely.

I don't think it'll disappear, there's millions of people out there who thrive on drivel. The fact that they've survived this long and that 'reality' TV programs do so well is proof of this. I'm yet to be convinced there's any competent journalists at Stuff anyway. Unless you count scraping content as being competent.

alasta: The type of people who enjoy the rubbish currently on NZME/Fairfax web sites are not going to be the type of people who want to pay for their 'news'.

No but it may be that NZME/Fairfax leave the rubbish as free fare. I'm sure they pick up a reasonable amount of revenue through click-bait, page-view ad's etc. The upside of a paywalled section would be the elimination of 90%+ of comments.