From January apparently. Quite surprised by that.
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Guardian online going behind a paywall?
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Posted 5 months ago #
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Oh no, not another tax on public sector workers!!! This could be the final straw!
Posted 5 months ago # -
Dammit
I get a weird pleasure reading the comments on Bike Blog articles. The level of arrogance and ignorance within can be quite something.
Although I'm surprised other papers haven't followed the move made by The Times sooner
Posted 5 months ago # -
the-muffin-man - Member
Oh no, not another tax on public sector workers!!! This could be the final straw!
Posted 5 months ago # -
Bugger. Their android app is excellent.
Posted 5 months ago # -
I am suprised. linky?
Posted 5 months ago # -
That'd be disappointing.
Posted 5 months ago # -
Source?
Otherwise, bullshit.
Posted 5 months ago # -
Bugger. Their android app is excellent.
Yeah they had a app for the iPhone that was free and very good, but they released a second app (not an update) and then nagged users of the first app to move to that.
Naturally the second app was subs-based.
I stuck with the first app (naturally) but it stopped working recently so I suspect the same thing will happen on Android.
Posted 5 months ago # -
The subscription people called this morning (I already subscribe) and that's what the guy said.
Posted 5 months ago # -
are they going to rename 'CommentIsFree' ?
Dave
Posted 5 months ago # -
going behind a paywall
that's going on my w@nky phrase list.
Why shouldn't they charge? You have to buy the content in the paper, why should they give it free online?
Posted 5 months ago # -
We need a free (as in freedom, as in free from commercial pressure) media, unfortunately that was never going to be completely paid for by advertising, nor should we want it to be.
Clearly the Times has shown it can work, if the Guardian follows suit then I expect the Independent and the Telegraph to not be far behind. I guess the tabloids will remain free for ever through.
Posted 5 months ago # -
I'm not suprised. I've stopped buying newspapers as they're freely available online and a lot of the weekend supplement features I've already read online earlier in the week.
However, I'm now having to get the woodburner going with the artwork and cereal packet sculptures that my youngest kid brings home from school.
Posted 5 months ago # -
Glasgow Herald has just gone for a limited paywall too. I can see why they think they need to do this but I reckon we're just witnessing the death throes of the traditional printed press.
Posted 5 months ago # -
im pretty sure the guardian has been running at a loss for a while now, i expect the torygraph will follow, the tabloids/ hate mail will keep going on a mixture of salacious celebrity skullbuggery and the usual bigoted reactionary nonesense
the trouble with a paywall is that it ties you into one paper, i stopped bothering with the times after the paywall (which the guardian has been slagging of since its inception)
good news for the bbc though
Posted 5 months ago # -
BBC site has so little news on it though - very superficial. Mind you, the Guardian has been getting leaner as well the last couple of years.
Posted 5 months ago # -
im pretty sure the guardian has been running at a loss for a while now
You can say that again!
The Guardian has been losing money every year since 2004. Last year alone, it and its sister newspaper, the Observer, lost more than €47 million. It's only thanks to the farsightedness and generosity of its former owners, the Scott family, that the paper hasn't gone bankrupt.
Since 1936, the paper has been funded by the Scott Trust. This structure has but a single aim: "To secure the editorial independence of The Guardian in perpetuity."
However, the Guardian's losses have become too big to absorb -- and in 2007 the Scott Trust was forced to sell some of its assets to refill its coffers.......
.......the Guardian Media Group, recently warned that if the Guardian continued to make such heavy losses, the company would simply run out of money within five years.
Posted 5 months ago # -
I think I'll go out and buy the paper instead...
Posted 5 months ago # -
I'll miss it. But not enough to pay for it.
Posted 5 months ago # -
Nowt on google news bar a piece about reducing the print edition.
Posted 5 months ago # -
footflaps - Member
BBC site has so little news on it though - very superficial. Mind you, the Guardian has been getting leaner as well the last couple of years.
i agree the top 10 most viewed stories are pretty woeful often 'celeb' driven bollox (strictly!!)
with the cuts the quality of stories has dropped especially in international newsPosted 5 months ago # -
Guardian readers can always read the Daily Mail instead.
Posted 5 months ago # -
"company charges price for providing goods and services" shocker
Posted 5 months ago # -
Aljazeera is still free and often offers a slightly more worldly view than the BBC (in my view). Good app for the iPhone too.
Posted 5 months ago # -
Pleae God can we stop calling it a paywall. There are plenty of other suitable words and phrases about to indicate charging for a service, we don't have to invent a new one. Grrr
Posted 5 months ago # -
Paywall makes sense to me, new words are created every day, that's life.
Plus I don't think your lone voice of opposition will have much effect, sorry!
Posted 5 months ago # -
'subscription'
Posted 5 months ago # -
"Guardian online to charge a subscription?" makes perfect sense too, and doesn't involve any cringeworthy pseudo-technobabble marketing to$$
Posted 5 months ago # -
Plus I don't think your lone voice of opposition will have much effect, sorry!
Hey, Gandhi was a lone voice in the wilderness once
Posted 5 months ago # -
I suspect the OP has the wrong end of the stick... Alan Rushbridger (for it is he) has very firmly nailed his colours to the mast that the Gruinard will not charge for online content while he is editor. If the paper is about to start doing that then he will almost certainly be for the high jump and News International will be doing all it can to settle scores with him for his role in the NoTW story.
That said, the paper could certainly do with more revenue - it has revenues to support approx 250 editorial staff and has closer to 700 on the books (across Guardian and Observer).
Posted 5 months ago # -
I work for the Guardian and it’s the first I’ve heard. I suspect the OP's been slightly confused by the scheduled expiry of the ipad app free trial period. The app was launched in October with an initial 3 months free trial, ending in January when it will be charged at £9.99 a month.
I’ve been in several of the guardians “digital first” strategy briefings and it’s been made pretty clear that they don’t believe a paywall on the website will work. Its major revenue source is still the printed copy, which is predicted to remain the most profitable form of media for at least the next 5 years before digital revenue catches up.
However, as already pointed out, were loosing large sums of money every year, and whilst we’re a not-for-profit organisation, we do have to be sustainable. The Guardian is making some very big cuts right across the group, including half the staff at our plant alone. The printed product will be quite different from January/February going forward, with the website taking more of a leading role. The paper will try and engage and capture the readership in the morning with more in depth stories about recent events, whilst the faster digital side, such as the website will deliver more breaking news which is what its good at, and where the paper cant compete.
The guardian is also investing heavily in America. We are already established there as one of the top sources for international news and receive massive unique user hits on the .co.uk website from that region. Unfortunately the American sales market won’t take us seriously until we have a .com web address. This has led to the recent acquisition of http://www.guardiannews.com and a permanently based team there to try and tap the market. Hopefully some of these strategies will bring in the advertising revenue that is needed for the survival of the guardian and the Scott trust values of journalism.
Posted 5 months ago # -
I think the numbers for the Times have been very disappointing, and they've been reluctant to post the figures as they're being watched by most media outlets with intrigue.
Of course the low take up is most likely due to other news sources still being free, and potentially because the online price is not much less than the 'paper' price, so perhaps they need to work on this.
In the longer run we will have to pay for all of these kind of services, but in the short term there are enough free (advertising funded) alternatives.
Posted 5 months ago # -
were loosing large sums of money every year
Yep, definitely works for Teh Gruaniad
Posted 5 months ago # -
glad to hear its still free!!
the guardian liveblogs are excellent btw!
Posted 5 months ago #
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