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Detroit free press subscription5/9/2023 This is why you have people on both (all?) sides claiming "fake news" - because frankly, a lot of mainstream news is sensationalized and written for emotional appeal. Then places like reddit share a 'buzzworthy' title and get everyone up in arms over a title that was written to maximize clicks over accuracy, when the content of the article may actually clarify the outrage, or maybe not - sometimes even the content is an appeal to emotion. Now you've got news that gets paid by clicks, so we get clickbait headlines. Then you have assholes like me that run adblockers because it's annoying, and this creates even more issues. This has caused the papers to become increasingly ad-based, it's really taken off over the past decade or so. Physical papers aren't a major form of news consumption anymore. Otherwise the product quality goes down, or they close the doors altogether. They have to make money to provide a quality product. Journalism is a business with professionals and overhead costs. I've had free online news for so long I don't even know what it's like to pay for it. "As more people have moved to digital, it only makes sense that readers would pay a share of the news gathering," he said.It's tough. Miles noted that readers have always paid for some share of a newspaper's bottom line, but that has shifted over the years as people have gone away from home delivery. Between 20, ad revenue shrank from $37.8 billion to $14.3 billion, a decline of 62 percent, according to the Pew Research Center. The move to seek revenue from digital subscribers is largely driven by the sharp decline in advertising dollars, which traditionally accounted for the bulk of the news industry's revenue. He added that discussions between the two independent newsrooms and the entity that oversees the JOA had been ongoing for some time.īoth newspapers have had to implement furloughs of editorial staffers since the COVID-19 pandemic began. "It was time," Bhatia told Crain's when asked why the decision was made to roll out the new digital subscription model. Other big city, legacy papers including the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times also have partial paywalls on news content. The New York Times, for example, debuted its nonsubscriber paywall in 2011 and now has more than 6 million subscribers.Ĭrain's Detroit Business has limited access to articles to subscribers in various ways for many years. The Free Press and Detroit News come fairly late to the era of paywalls for news websites. Miles said he did not yet have a percentage in mind, but wants to ensure it's enough to have value to subscribers. Bhatia said he envisions beginning with about 10 percent of stories and increasing that number over time. In separate interviews with Crain's on Monday afternoon, both executives said they'll be evaluating how many stories could wind up behind the paywall. Digital subscriptions for each media outlet will begin at $3 per month for the first three months. "We have never been afraid to go to court to seek documents and information we believe to be in the public's interest."īoth executives wrote that much daily news reporting and breaking news will remain accessible for all, but longer-term enterprise reports will require a subscription for access. "Your subscription will help us keep up the fight for openness and freedom of information in Michigan," Bhatia wrote. Peter Bhatia, editor and vice president of the Free Press, expressed a similar sentiment. "This is driven by the long-term need to replace declining advertising revenue in print newspapers, a decline hastened by businesses reeling from the global pandemic," Gary Miles, editor and publisher of the Detroit News, wrote in his column. The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press, which operate as editorially independent but have interwoven business operations via a joint operating agreement, announced the partial paywall plans in a pair of editorial columns released simultaneously Monday afternoon. Detroit's two legacy daily newspapers will next week begin requiring payment for access to some of their news reporting by implementing a paywall system that will take effect Aug.
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