The Gazette is going to start charging to access stories online.
Sure, it’s not wonderful journalism… but the Gazette is still the main English-language daily in Montreal. As such, it’s my primary news source.
The content will remain free only to people who subscribe 7 days a week. And no, I don’t subscribe. Not only is it insanely expensive and a waste of paper, but it would also mean I’d have to go down to the lobby each morning to fetch the paper and bring it back upstairs to read it. Considering how my morning routine usually consists of rolling out of bed and rushing to work, the chances of me doing this are slim-to-none.
And now I won’t even be able to read it online! If this keeps up, sooner or later I’ll have no more free news sources to go to.
I wrote the Gazette a long angry e-mail to their posted address, feedback@thegazette.canwest.com – which I assume is an alias for “trashbin@dontcareaboutreaders.com”.
Dammit. I was already mad enough about the hockey game. I’m not having a good night here.
They’ve got to be joking… I mean, honestly, they REALLY have got to be joking…
Ummm.. you’re upset that they are not providing you with a free electronic paper?
C’mon Sari, my understanding is that you have a full time job. Get the subscription and, if you don’t want the paper version, send it to a high school in the area or some charity.
The Gazette is hiring at least one shmoe (and probably more) to make the online web version. Those people have to get paid, and the “extra” advertising revenue from the web edition is probably not going to cut it, unless internet economics have changed drastically while I wasn’t looking.
Gotta agree with Knave here.
The new format is great. Not perfect, but an incredible improvement.
If anything, the Gazette was very late with offering a service like this and the the past year or so had us suffering with a somewhat pathetic online version.
Nothing is free anymore and everything costs something. While some people still think they deserve everything for free, a lot of people are voluntary paying for stuff they like. Maybe you’ll send a ‘donation’ to LGF, or actually send in something for some freeware you really, really appreciate, maybe even get an -enhanced paying version out of respect.
I just hope that the Gazette gives us overseas readers a break and not charge us something insane that Montrealers are expected to pay.
The Vancouver dailies are doing the same thing. I DO subscibe to the paper version but if I want the ENTIRE thing as an e version I still have to pay extra. Not going to happen. I’m betting that there are so few people prepared to pay that the idea collapses.
The ‘Archive’ is for seven days only, if I understand it correctly (I’ve been wrong before…)
I got the following response from the e-mail I sent:
Full version in PDF for $10 a month? What a joke! What use is PDF? After all, a newspaper hard copy is an extremely inconvenient format, produced the way it is only because of cost constraints. And this means even paying newspaper subscribers will have to pay extra for the “extended” service just to access the same stories in HTML.
I bet nobody signs up for this new “enhanced” service and the idea collapses from Day 1. All the Gazette is doing is alienating its readers.
Well, congratulations Gazette, you just lost me.
Considering that a HUGE proportion of the paper is advertising (what, maybe 70-80%) they want us to PAY to view? $120 a year!!!!! ROFL We don’t pay much more than that for a hardcopy subscription …DELIVERED to our door.
They’ve been sniffing that press cleaning solvent again…
Hmm… what would be nice is if I could have a “Gazette tokens” account, where I could buy, say, 20-40 tokens for 10 bucks and turn in a token every time I want access to one section from one day. I bet you news junkies would fund the Gazette pretty well that way, and it would be a real no-wasteage solution for the occasional browser.
Sari, don’t email that address, get the emails of every person you can at the paper, pass them out to friends (especially those whith subscriptions) and email them all. Then do the same on the phone. I’m with you on that one. But you know, they never did put all the paper edition content online or vice-versa, and the differences, from a political standpoint, where quite interesting (more of my content analysis…)