The Boston Globe

[dsrtao]

$36/month -- delivered paper.
$17/month -- web access to "the electronic edition" -- PDF
$10/month -- Kindle edition
Free -- http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/?p1=GN_TodaysGlobe

Also free:

http://news.google.com
http://www.universalhub.com

Comments

[hungrytiger]

True; though when enough people drop their subscriptions, the Globe will no longer be able to pay their reporters and journalists and then what? The Globe's investigation of the Catholic church sex scandal cost a couple million in investigative research (not to mention all of the time and legwork in tracking down leads and evidence). I don't see bloggers picking up that slack and without a capable fourth estate to act as a watchdog, I think we'll be in a bad place.

And Google news (as well as Yahoo News and most blog news sites like the Universalhub you mentioned), just links to and/or recycles other news articles that they get for free, which still doesn't help reporters get paid for their work.

A while back, the national assoc. of newspaper publishers agreed to keep the news stories they post the the web free. Clearly, that business model isn't working well. One item I heard that is a possible ray of hope for a newspaper industry in dire need of change was that Obama was reportedly considering allowing papers to reestablish themselves as not-for-profit entities and get better tax breaks under that. I'm not sure if it would work, but it's an interesting idea.

[dsrtao]

The basic problem is that I want to support good journalism, and good journalism is about 25-45% of the Globe by page count, and rather less by budget dollars.

No, I don't have an answer. I do think that (a) this is the end of many major newspapers as physical entities and (b) the Globe doesn't know what to charge for electronic access, but whatever it is, it will be wrong.

[liamstliam.livejournal.com]

Charging anything for electronic access is a bad idea.

There's just no model for it that can really work.

[hungrytiger]

Good points.

I like getting the Sunday Globe, but you're right that most of it could be thrown out and I wouldn't miss it a bit (and the Globe is arguably one of the better newspapers in the country).

Micropayments might be an answer. 5 cents per article through some autopayment system (or you could pay $5/year for access to a section). Just a thought.

In any case, the whole industry will have to change soon and it's going to be interesting to watch.

[elizabear.livejournal.com]

I hate micro payments. I really prefer a flat fee for access.

[liamstliam.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, there is one newspaper in the country like that (there may be more, I am unsure), and I used to work there.

It's called The Day newspaper, and it's a 35,000 daily and Sunday that is based in New London, Conn.

When Ted Bodenwein died, he left the paper in trust to the Bodenwein Foundation. The only use of profits allowed are -- increasing salaries for the employees, phsyical improvements to the buildings or charitable donations.

The IRS tried to break the trust and failed.

Nonetheless, the paper has frozen salaries and has laid folks off.

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, it was one of the best-paying small dailies in the country, and there are a lot of folks still there who were there when I got there in 1986 or were hired just after that.