Today I got a note while trying to read the on-line Dispatch that "I had exceeded my free content". WTF? I'm a subscriber and have been for a number of years. When did they separate digital and print? It must have just happened. Now I am unable to read any Crew news except what shows up in print on Saturday and Sunday. What really ticks me off is that I am a subscriber to their "Today's Headlines" and there was no mention of this change. They have my e-mail. Making a change without notifiying your customers is dumb. Really dumb. Ticking off a customer is not a good way to get one to buy a service.
They announced this a week or so ago. Kind of unfortunate, but the Dispatch isn't really worth paying for so no big loss for me.
It's really stupid to block of the blog along with the news section. I could put up with reading Jardy's blogs from practice in which he teases at more info for print and the pay wall. Otherwise, as an out of town fan, I'm not paying for access and they will just lose my visits. Also, as a print subscriber, you should be able to talk with circulation and get an account with pay wall access.
I'm also out of state so won't be subscribing just for the Crew blog. I'm surprised they are asking print subscribers to pay more for electronic access. This is nearly as perplexing as New York Times asking for separate subscriptions for the "tablet/web" and "smartphone" e-editions of their content.
For the record, I have no problem with newspapers going behind a paywall though. The print journalism industry creates the vast majority of news and it is expensive to produce. Online ads are not going to make up for the decline of dollars coming from circulation, print ads, and classifieds. I recently co-authored a report about the decline of local reporting in my state. I believe we see similar problems across the country. As digital news proliferates we see more people from small communities logging online to find regional and national news but NOT to find local news. This is because newspapers (and other media) simply cannot afford to pay journalists to cover small communities anymore. The content just isn't produced. The national and regional news (e.g. biggest regional city) is easier/cheaper to cover and its easier/chaper to put online so we're stuck without a lot of local news. It is a huge problem without a particularly good solution, but a paywall might help.
We have a really good guy for the Dispatch local papers--Kevin Parks. Great reporter. But when he goes, who knows? The Dispatch recently bought Columbus Monthly and consolidated their local papers with the Dispatch one--and the guy that could have replaced him some day was fired. Now I also have no complaint with a paywall. We have pretty good content in the Dispatch and you have to pay all those reporters *somehow*. Electrons are cheaper than paper. But reporters cost the same. The most expensive copy of a book is the *first* copy. All the rest is just paper and ink--or electrons. But as a long time subscriber, I would have appreciated a personal message telling me so (unless I missed it). Making *blogs* premium is dumb too--they should be the bait to get you to buy the content.
ColumbusUnderground.com has a relevant thread: http://www.columbusunderground.com/forums/topic/columbus-dispatch-online-now-charging
Interesting. Thanks for the link. I'd stsated in the past, that I was getting to the point where I was willing to pay for the content the Dogpatch provides. They actually do a pretty good job. But the demi-buttocked way they've gone about installing it---well, that's a whole 'nother story.
Alert...dispatch not too bright!! ahem....hey, you know it is a good idea to delete cookies and browser history once in awhile...
Again, I think NYTimes and the Dispatch have their PR absolutely wrong. I believe all print subscribers should have access to content in whatever way they want, electronic or whatever. Then, there should be a flat electronic fee, where newspaper content is behind the paywall but extra blog content is free (NYTimes does offer free access to their blogs I believe). Bottom line: as a longtime subscriber to the Dispatch you are being jerked around. It never ceases to amaze me that an industry in such shambles alienates the existing people willing to pay for their product (see also: the film/tv/music industries).
I let my weekend subscription laps a few years ago. Then about 6 months later I signed up for a new weekend subscription. The Dispatch backcharged me for the couple weeks they continued to deliver the paper after my older subscription had lapsed. Then less than 6 monthsinto the new one (i forget exactly how far into it it was, 3-4 probably) they about doubled the price on me. That was the end of me ever dealing with the Dispatch.
years ago, I cancelled my subscription... then still got papers delivered afterwards. AssPatch still tried to bill me for it. Dealt with their calls for 4 or 5 months before they finally clued in that I didn't owe them shit. Then, a year and a half ago, my wife ordered the weekend package for the coupons. Again, the time lapse, another call made to them not to auto-renew followed by more deliveries. Followed by another 4-5 months of bullshit. They had the balls to call my house again with another offer. Fortunately for them, my wonderfully nice wife answered. I made her hang up. I refuse to deal with those asshats.
I had the same problem. I had weekend delivery when I lived down by Athens. I moved, so I called to cancel. Three months later, I got a letter saying them I owed them for the previous three months. A couple phone calls later, I finally got the problem resolved. They still try to call me and stop by my house to get me to subscribe...
I got the paper every day for about 20 years. Since I was getting national news from the internet, about the only parts I read were the sports, comics, and metro sections. I got tired of piles of paper and cancelled. Haven't missed it at all.
I already pay for the Sunday paper (coupons) and did not know about this change. I'd gladly pay for what I want online - Crew updates. Jardy is doing a good job. What makes me mad about this is that I could view another day in the saga that is the Blue Jackets for free, while I could not reading about the season ending injury to Anor. My solution is to simply use other outlets - Twitter, Crew.com, and BIG SOCCER!!!
And that's the dumbest part of all this. Media is so splintered now that there are plenty of other options for information. The Dispatch isn't the only game in town anymore (well, it is, technically, the only print game in town anymore). People will still get the information they want for free -- they'll just get it somewhere else. Very few people are willing to suddenly start paying for a product (they don't particularly value very highly anyway) that they became accustomed to getting for free.
Yea, this is pretty frustrating for someone who already pays for the Wed/Sat/Sun version of the Dispatch to be delivered at their home - and has for many years. While I understand the desire for the "pay to read" because their financial model isn't working, I am frustrated that I don't get any benefit as an existing subscriber and have to pay extra to read things online. I think we're going to just cancel all together...
I looked at the "tell me more" offers, and you can get just sunday papers plus access to the E-version for $14.99 a month. they have a variety of papers too. Fid, I think yours was listed at $16.99 a month for both the E edition and the papers you get. I'd be curious to find out how much you pay without the E-edition.
I was paying $17.99 for just the three-day paper delivery as the old "introductory" rate had expired years ago - and would have added $3 per month for the electronic rate for a total for $20.99 for both. So I called them up and shockingly enough, they were extremely helpful (amazing given what customer service has come to mean for some) and got them both for me for the introductory rate of $16.99 - so I am actually saving a buck a month - for the next year.
Out of all the forums I'm on, this one is probably the only one that actually (somewhat) enforces the copyright law of not being able to post whole articles. A lot of forums have users who will post an article and maybe not even link to it. It just makes things more susceptible to stuff like that.
I really think Jardy does a terrific job covering the Crew and local soccer. I'd be willing to pay for "premium" access to Crew news and Jardy's blog at the Dispatch online at a significantly lower rate than $19.99 per month—a price that I still have a hard time reading without rolling my eyes and chuckling. I can count on one hand the number of articles I've read on dispatch.com in the last year that were not Crew related. I understand that my interest in the Crew and soccer puts me in a significant minority of Dispatch readers, but I link to Jardy's articles a lot and do send a fair number of eyeballs to the site on a weekly basis, and I'm certainly not the only one. When you add it up over the course of a month or a year, that's a fair number of page views that they can take to their advertisers. It's amazing to me that they don't have more of an a la carte model, for lack of a better word. Or perhaps offer a lower per-month online subscription price—say $3.99 to $4.99—with pre-roll ads before you can view content. Or maybe we should open another casino to subsidize the Wolfe family's losses.
Got my reply from the Dogpatch. No apology for not telling me. Nothing about my complaint about not telling me.
Won't surprise me if they see such a decrease in traffic that they start dropping it in price if not abolish the the premium crap in the future.