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All the News That's Fit To Pay For?
I can't be so different from everyone else, can I? Don't we all want it all for free? Information, that is. Online information - we want it and we want it for free. Right?
I know I do.
Back in the late 1970's when I first subscribed to our local cable TV company, it cost me a whopping $19.95 per month to have crystal clear TV reception of the handful of stations that came in on my TV. I was over-the-moon happy with this development. For less than $20 every month, I had no need of my rabbit ears and tinfoil rig-up - just a clunky cable box and wonderful crystal clear TV reception. It was heavenly.
That was then. This is now.
Now, my monthly bill for cable TV service is a whopping $116.+ per month. Granted, I have hundreds (it seems) of channels to choose from, but if I were to go through all those channels and throw out the useless crap-filled stations, I would probably wind up with the small handful I started out with, for $19.95 a month!
Most of what I'm paying for on TV now is pure unadulterated rubbish. I actually admire and envy those of you who have either foregone getting Cable in the first place or have given it up altogether in search of a simpler lifestyle. I haven't been that brave... yet.
So I've had a good time these last couple of decades accessing news web sites and getting all my information for free... from the free internet. Well, almost free. It also costs me to HAVE internet access, to the tune of about $60+ per month but that includes my phone bill, as well, which I never use (the phone, that is) so it may as well be just the internet charge!
And now it has become quite evident, as I search for news outlets online to get my news each day, that the freebies are coming to an end.
It's starting to be hard to find a news outlet these days that is still free and that doesn't warn you, when you click on it, that you have "5 free articles to read until you will need to start paying up." A warning... nice of them to give us a warning. Some give us 10 free articles to read free, some only 5, and one I clicked on said that the next article I want to read would cost me money. Period.
See the links below to learn more about this subject if you want. I have found these articles very informative and interesting and wanted to share them with you.
Here is a good list of How to Find Newspapers Online (websearch.about.com):
How to Find Newspapers Online
<><><><><><><><><><>
My question for you is: Will you sign up to pay for any news outlets in the future if/when these sites stop giving it to you for free?
Or, have you already done this? Signed up to pay for your news online?
Is the day of the free internet truly over, for all intents and purposes, to most of us now?
We pay for a yearly subscription of our local Salem News, and yet when I go to their web site now to read the news, they will not let me read it any longer, I've gone past the 5 free articles left - so I'll have to go back to the paper version of the newspaper, as Paul has always done.
Thanks for your input.
Cheers,
Bex-the-news-hound
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I know I do.
Back in the late 1970's when I first subscribed to our local cable TV company, it cost me a whopping $19.95 per month to have crystal clear TV reception of the handful of stations that came in on my TV. I was over-the-moon happy with this development. For less than $20 every month, I had no need of my rabbit ears and tinfoil rig-up - just a clunky cable box and wonderful crystal clear TV reception. It was heavenly.
That was then. This is now.
Now, my monthly bill for cable TV service is a whopping $116.+ per month. Granted, I have hundreds (it seems) of channels to choose from, but if I were to go through all those channels and throw out the useless crap-filled stations, I would probably wind up with the small handful I started out with, for $19.95 a month!
Most of what I'm paying for on TV now is pure unadulterated rubbish. I actually admire and envy those of you who have either foregone getting Cable in the first place or have given it up altogether in search of a simpler lifestyle. I haven't been that brave... yet.
So I've had a good time these last couple of decades accessing news web sites and getting all my information for free... from the free internet. Well, almost free. It also costs me to HAVE internet access, to the tune of about $60+ per month but that includes my phone bill, as well, which I never use (the phone, that is) so it may as well be just the internet charge!
And now it has become quite evident, as I search for news outlets online to get my news each day, that the freebies are coming to an end.
It's starting to be hard to find a news outlet these days that is still free and that doesn't warn you, when you click on it, that you have "5 free articles to read until you will need to start paying up." A warning... nice of them to give us a warning. Some give us 10 free articles to read free, some only 5, and one I clicked on said that the next article I want to read would cost me money. Period.
See the links below to learn more about this subject if you want. I have found these articles very informative and interesting and wanted to share them with you.
The Era of Free News Websites is Ending (journalism.about.com):
The Era of Free News Websites is Ending
Why Should Everything on the Internet be Free? (journalism.about.com):
Why Should Everything on the Internet be Free?
Newspapers Increasingly Charging for Online Content (www.pressherald.com):
Newspapers Increasingly Charging for Online Content
Here is a good list of How to Find Newspapers Online (websearch.about.com):
<><><><><><><><><><>
My question for you is: Will you sign up to pay for any news outlets in the future if/when these sites stop giving it to you for free?
Or, have you already done this? Signed up to pay for your news online?
Is the day of the free internet truly over, for all intents and purposes, to most of us now?
We pay for a yearly subscription of our local Salem News, and yet when I go to their web site now to read the news, they will not let me read it any longer, I've gone past the 5 free articles left - so I'll have to go back to the paper version of the newspaper, as Paul has always done.
Thanks for your input.
Cheers,
Bex-the-news-hound
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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