The Times-Union web site will go behind a pay wall on Oct. 1. After that, readers will be able to access the home page, but beyond that will be asked to subscribe to view our content. Subscription rates and options will be as follows: One week – $2 Three months $15 One year – $50 As you can see, depending on the option chosen, the cost is around a buck a week. I wrote about charging for online content a few weeks ago. That column drew some interesting comments. One reader noted that the content on our web site wasn’t worth a dollar a week. I, of course, strongly disagree. Another reader posted the links to area television stations, radio stations, newspapers and funeral homes. He said you can get any information on our site by going to those other sites. That’s simply not accurate. Those other news outlets – combined – don’t carry the level of local content we do. Police news, court news, the city and town councils, the school boards, social service agency news, weddings, engagements, anniversaries, births, deaths, letters to the editor, columnists, photo galleries, classified advertising, links to lots of our display advertisers’ businesses. I could go on, but you get the picture. And those other news outlets don’t cover the hard news in our county like one might think. Just for grins, one of my staffers went into our site statistics to poke around. Fully 17 of the top 20 most accessed stories – news stories generated by our staff – did not appear in any other news outlet online. So the reader’s assertion that you can find all the content on our site somewhere else for free is patently false. But let’s say for a moment it was true. Even if you could find our content elsewhere, you would have to search dozens of web sites for it. Then you’d have to scroll through dozens of stories in hopes of finding one about Warsaw. Wouldn’t it be a lot easier and a lot less time consuming to find all of that information in one place? Even if it cost you a whole dollar a week? And what we’ve been addressing so far is just the content on our site that is local and produced by our staff. But there is tons of web-only content on our site. Next time you go to our homepage, scroll all the way to the bottom. There, under the photos and the “recently commented” and “most viewed” links, you will find a blue with the words “Extras and “Life.” Hover over Extras with your mouse. There you will find links to the following: Gas prices, crossword puzzles, Entertainment news, exercise video, flight tracking, box office, horoscopes, jobs, lottery news, miles per gallon, mortgage rates, a music player, quote of the day, recipes, soccer sodoku, stock prices, swimsuit model of the day, weather forecast and world news. Hover over Life and then click on “Landing Page.” You will be directed to a page containing: Automotive – All things automotive. From car care to buying and selling. Family Living – Advice and tips to help families of all shapes and sizes. Fashion & Beauty – Diet, exercise and fashion articles full of tips for looking and feeling great. Finance – Advice on spending and saving money, tax tips and financial planning. How-To – From small projects to big fixes, these articles cover it all. Lawn & Garden – Articles covering landscaping, gardening, and all the outdoor spaces around the home. Senior Living – Health, travel and living advice for the baby boomer generation and beyond. Tech Talk – Stories on new products to fit everyone's lifestyle. Other topics on the landing page include: Bed & bath, bridal, business, community, education, Español, food & recipes, gift ideas, green living, health, home decorating, home improvement, hot topics, pets, real estate, seasonal and travel. We believe our web-only offerings are useful, instructional, informative and just plain fun. All-in-all, we’ve tried hard to offer something of value to our online readers and we are to the point where we believe a modest subscription rate of around a buck a week isn’t too much to ask. It’s not like we’re the rabbit in the paid-content greyhound race. Lot’s of other newspaper already have came to he same conclusion. Rochester, Wabash, Columbia City and many other newspapers around the state charge for their online content. The Bloomington newspaper charged for its online content from day one. I know lots of people think this is about money. I can say with a clear conscience and absolute certainty that this is not about money. Honestly, if it was about money, we would either charge much more or simply take down the web site and eliminate the cost of maintaining it. Newspaper web sites – subscription-based or not – are not highly lucrative. This decision is mostly about protecting our brand, our product and our business. Our business is creating and delivering news and advertising. We believe that content – undeniably – has value. If you give away something that has value, over time, it’s value becomes diluted. We believe the time has come to stop diluting the value of our content.
