Times-Standard to charge for online content
Consumers of free news courtesy of the Times-Standard website might have to dig into their recession-scarred pockets if they want stay informed dot com style.
Eureka’s paper daddy, Dean Singleton, CEO of the T-S parent company Media News Group, announced it will start charging for online content for all MNG-owned papers. Singleton wrote in a memo to employees that posting articles free of charge does an “injustice to our print subscribers and create perceptions that our content has no value.”
The changeover may take some time, however. Singleton’s memo said the first goal is to form various task forces and ultimately create a business plan to implement the new strategy.
MNG will rely on its massive newspaper arsenal to usher readers through the switch.
“We will take advantage of the size of MNG to leverage enterprise solutions and build off a common platform that allows for fast implementation and a companywide rollout,” reads the memo.
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The Humboldt Herald 
It’s about time. But why does the idea “Don’t work for free” need a complex business plan?
Charge for what? The number one thing read in the newspaper (besides comics) are classified ads. The TS ads have been bungled online with ads appearing in the wrong categories.
My favorite are the garage sale listings where people pay extra to have their sale pinpointed on a map, but when you click the listing the description is blank. And last week’s expired listings usually show up mingled with current ones. A second page of listings randomly shows up containing real estate ads. It’s no wonder Craigslist is doing so well.
And what’s with the mountain of javascript all over the TS site? They need to give us a modern website before asking people to pay to use it.
“…leverage enterprise solutions and build off a common platform that allows for fast implementation and a companywide rollout.” Don’t you wish YOU could write disinformation like that? And of course, the resultant enhanced revenue stream will necessitate an uptick in employee profit participation. . .NOT.
“The number one thing read in the newspaper (besides comics) are classified ads.”.
I read somewhere the most read section of the paper is the Opinion/ Editorial page.
As far as charging for access to the T-S site, I don’t have a problem with that, but I wonder how that will affect us bloggers?
nobody is going to pay.
If the price is right, I’ll pay.
Pay to read the poorly written, unsubstantiated tripe they call news????Never!!!!
The T.S. is a lousy paper and has been for at least 15 years…going downhill every year to sit in the mud puddle it does now, on its way to the sewer where it belongs. It’s not worth reading and it’s inexcusable. High School seniors writing for the school paper know more about responsible journalism than the T.S. writers and editor seem to.
There is no saving the paper and sadly, no saving our community from the loss of local coverage. I can read the New York Times on line every morning for free (well, most of the content) and A.P. is available anywhere, as is weather. I love craigslist and use it for any classified need so that really leaves local news as the only reason to pick up a T.S. Trouble is the local coverage in the T.S. is biased, unreliable drivel. The Eureka Reporter did an outstanding job of covering local happenings, youth activities, arts and community coverage. The T.S. had an opportunity to raise the bar when it folded, giving locals a newspaper to be proud of and at every turn they have failed.
I will gladly pay for anything worthwhile. If it utter crap it ought to be free.
The New York Times is also considering charging for online content.
And while their coverage may be stellar (never mind the times when it’s been nothing but Cheney-loving war propaganda) you can’t read local news in the NYT.
The T-S web page will become a ghost town. It is a third-rate paper (maybe on purpose?). Only a few new articles each day and they still have not announced the results of the election over a week ago !
“…they still have not announced the results of the election over a week ago !”.
No need to, really. The election results were everywhere else, already. Probably better to report on something else.
Now Fred, that is plain silly. With that attitude you could excuse every bit of national, world & state news being ommitted from the Substandard.
What about local news ? If it isn’t a car wreck on 5th street, it is 50/50 whether it will be in the paper at all ?
What about South Bay, Cutten, Freshwater & Kneeland schools, when is the last time you read anything about them ? How are the state’s budget cuts affecting them ? What has happened to the attendence at the zoo since the ill-advised admission fees were passed ? Arkley spoke in front of Rotary & Eureka Republican women in the last two weeks. Shouldn’t the paper have covered it a little ? He is our only Eureka billionaire.
Besides, the Times web site is the slowest web site I have ever been to !
Heraldo,
Do you read the NYT? I am about as Cheney hating as they come and I have never read “Cheney Loving war propaganda” in their paper except from Bill O’Reilly and columnists of his ilk. Frankly I am willing to admit that finding the NYT so affirming of my fairly leftist leanings is the very reason I turn to it for daily reading.
Two words: Judith Miller.
Well, it was only a matter of time. A lady was at Ray’s Food Place a month and a half ago trying to give out for free a Sunday edition of the T-S. She was working it hard too. She asked me If I wanted a copy. I said no because of the online version. She said, “well how are you going to support the paper and par for those who work at the paper.” I thought, “hmmm, then why are you giving away for free Sunday papers – the most expensive edition?” I walked away thinking that online will soon be up to the money plate.
P.S. Here is an excerpt from an article I read – copy and paste style from Yahoo Sports section:
“I try not to beat this to death here, as I am far inferior to others who have made the same points more effectively elsewhere, but traditional media organizations and many of their employees just don’t get it: the more they fight people-powered media coverage, the more they lose.
The last time I touched on this was in early April when I linked to this essay over at Maize n Brew, SBN’s blog for the Michigan Wolverines. Well last Friday, Bob Kravitz of the Indy Star wrote a piece suggesting that we have become “a culture of weenies”, citing Mark Cuban’s e-apology to Kenyon Martin’s mother. On this, we agree. To be fair, I’m biased in a very traditional, Southern way: female family members are off-limits in 99% of conversations with other men. Don’t talk about my mother, my wife, my sister, or any future daughters I might have unless you want some free dental surgery compliments of my knuckles. After that, Kravitz loses me. Allow me.
Issue #1.
We are a culture in hiding. We are scared to death of confrontation. We can’t look another person in the eyes and say what needs to be said. We say what we want to say, and then we want to run to a safe place where nobody can tell us we’re full of baloney.
E-mail. Blogs. Twitter. Text messaging. Anonymously written Web posts. Message boards.
One-way conversations.
One-way converstaions? Really? Twitter is based on the very opposite of one-way conversations. In fact, the prime example of a one-way conversation is a newspaper article; Mr. Kravitz writes something, people read it, and that’s the end of the conversation. Sure, you can comment on the piece at the IndyStar’s website, but after 34 comments and a week of letting this sink in, Mr. Kravitz is yet to respond to any of those comments. I guess I could send a letter to the paper, but I seriously doubt I would get a response. So to rail against one-way conversations and the negative effect they have, Bob Kravitz exploits the oldest one-way conversation medium in history.
Issue #2
My biggest objection is the proliferation of blogs and posts by anonymous weenies — or pansies, if you will.
Everybody is big and brave behind a pseudonym, but confront them face to face, and next thing you know they’re changing underwear.
Who are you confronting and why? Really, though, that’s not the point. To extrapolate that a sample of people who you confronted and realized they were pussies to suggest that anyone who writes online under a pen name is a pussy is stupid. That would be like Bernie Miklasz confronting me, and then suggesting that anyone who covers sports online under a pseudonym is a gun-loving, beer-drinking hyper-masculine asshole. In fact, let me throw this out, since as I’m going to get to, it seems Mr. Kravitz seems to have an issue with SBN: feel free to confront me and try to pass it off as if I’m a weenie. To be fair, using the word weenie makes you a weenie. I haven’t said that or heard anybody say that since I was about 10.
Issue #3
I don’t mind personal criticism in the least; if you dish it out, you take it. Some of it is kind of funny, if I’m being honest. But who are these people writing in Stampede Blue and 18to88?
Again, weenies.
We’re becoming a culture of weenies.
We hide behind technology that makes one-way conversations possible.
We hide behind technology that provides us with pseudonyms and takes accountability out of the equation.
Journalism, and life, are about true human connections. We lose that, we lose the essence of what it means to truly communicate.
Essentially, his point is that people who write under a name other than the name given to them by their parents are “weenies” simply because they don’t write under that name. Why? I’m not sure. They just are. And you have to accept it, because he can hide behind technology that makes one-way conversations possible. But his next sentence disparages that notion, one that he promotes by doing what he does. He suggests pseudonyms take accountability away from ones opinions, as if people haven’t argued with me here at TST…often. Let’s just ignore his final sentence, since he tries to equate the core of journalism with the meaning of life.
So at this point, Mr. Kravitz has written a hypocritical article that does nothing but suggest he doesn’t understand the essence of people-powered media. Had he left it at that, I could have given him some lenience, attributing this to his experience in an industry that relies on a legacy system that is forced to ignore the power of people-powered media because it inherently weakens that industry. The authority of his opinions are weakened because someone like me can rip on him, and that’s tough to take. I get it. But it didn’t stop.
Later that day after being specifically called out in the article, Stampede Blue’s BigBlueShoe responded to Mr. Kravitz on a radio show and did so much more professionally and with much more restraint than I would have been able to. For the duration of the “interview”, Kravitz continues to cling to the fact that BigBlueShoe doesn’t post under the name his mother called him. And really, he seems to be upset at the fact that he doesn’t like the name BigBlueShoe. I went at his piece for the Star, so I’ll leave this audio clip alone, but only because people have more time to think through their own ideas, opinions and positions before writing them than they do in voicing them.
So let me wrap this up without making some kind of jackassed point that the meaning of life is the same as the value of journalism — Bob Kravitz doesn’t get it, because if he did, he’d have to admit that he’s not that important, and that his opinions are as valid as anyone else who is equally informed. That is hard to do, because, apparently, his opinions are pretty fucking stupid.”
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District
Maybe it will take more than two words, Heraldo.
The New York Times is in an industry — quoting the droppings of the powerful — that needs access to power to get its raw material. It will therefore suck up to power, to ensure a continuing supply of raw material.
Other sources of news are more interested in facts: they can get by on think tank reports, Congressional hearings, and so on.
I’d respected the New York Times until the Reagan administration, when I saw just how quickly they switched from one teat to the next.
After the non-election of Bush, and the Times’ complete failure to report the truth, any remaining shreds of credibility it may have had are now completely gone. It continues to have readership because of its name.
When I feel like hearing what the chattering class thinks, I open the New York Times. When I want to learn about politics in the United States, or about the real situation, I go to the The Guardian (guardian.co.uk) or The Economist.
I agree (and with Heraldo’s pithy words too). But I really appreciate Frank Rich’s Sunday think pieces in the NYT, which very intelligently monitor the stupid media so we don’t have to. Today he castigates his own St. Barack for ignoring the historic civil rights revolution happening everywhere but the White House over gay rights. He really is worth reading every week, and Maureen Dowd cracks me up. But it’s worth remembering what the last century’s greatest media critic I.F. Stone (whose biography is titled “All Governments Lie”) thought of the Times at its prime: they were mealy-mouthed windbags who dined with kings. Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.
Link to an article that I referenced earlier but did not upload on site.
Dying media
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District
Agreed, longwind. There’s still honesty and decency in some of the Times’ columns, with Rich and Herbert leading (and possibly ending) the list. Maureen Dowd stopped being funny long ago: any decent high school English teacher would tell her to try varying her style.
And while I’m venting, everything I said about the Times applies equally to “liberal” (hah!) NPR, with Daniel Schorr substituting for Rich and Herbert.
Yup. Except I thought Dowd’s finally learned how to be funny, after two terms of writing political commentary in chick-lit dialect. Maybe I’m just finding better things to annoy me? God how I wish they’d stay in New York!
Fair enough Heraldo, I conveniently forgot about that sad chapter in the NYT history.
I choose to take the good with the bad in my love for the NYT. I am shallow that way.
Is it free?
this is rediculous. i never even liked reading the times standard, most of it was BS anyways. all i liked doing was posting in the comment section and listening to all the biitchin
I live over a thousand miles from Eureka though my children and grandchildren live in Humboldt County. I am considering relocation to Eureka, so I have been reading the online Times-Standard daily for the past year. I believe I am free from the bias that seems to categorize most things I read from HumCo.
In the world of journalism, the top echelon does not include the NY Times. It is nearly impossible to find unbiased, international level news coverage in this country, so there are no U.S. newspapers I would place in the top echelon.
The NY Times perhaps fits the second tier as a local (not national or international) paper. Generally good writing, broad (but incomplete) coverage. LA Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and Christian Science Monitor all belong in this tier. Each has an agenda and identifiable bias.
The third tier contains smaller, local papers including the St. Louis Post Dispatch, Kansas City Star, Boston Globe, and Atlanta Constitution.
The fourth tier includes newspapers with small circulation providing news coverage for less populated markets. These include balanced, adequate coverage of local events with note taken of events outside the market area which impact the market. They provide a forum for local opinion and, in many ways, hold a mirror up to the community helping it define itself. The Times-Standard doesn’t come close to meeting these criteria.
The Times-Standard is more appropriately ranked in the same category as blogs. Unabashedly biased. Selective coverage. Not-necessarily-timely and poorly written. Since there is a large selection of local blogs from which to choose, I will turn to them for information about the area if the TS begins to charge. As a matter of fact, re-reading my comments here, I may eliminate the TS anyway – free or not.
I am quite capable of subscribing to the print edition of the TS but find the value proposition absurd. It is painful reading the online edition and I will certainly not pay for the experience.
I’ll send my money to the Humboldt Herald first.
There goes any online readership! If it’s free they will come, but charge…and the end result is very limited readership.
Most of the feedback for my column comes nationally because people can read it for free online.
Needless to say, I’m not happy about this development.
For a touch of irony today – someone at the T-S screwed-up again and didn’t bother updating their editorial or opinion areas in the online edition.
Result…no column today.
I think they are making a big mistake with this new idea.
There are other models for making money online that don’t end up limiting readership.
Sigh…
The newspaper has every reason to charge you. Freeloaders are dead weight. Newspapers are dying and freeganism doesn’t pay the rent.
In other words, no one cares if freegans stop reading. They contributed nothing to begin with, other than anonymous trolling.
My Plan: 1. Cancel my print subscription. 2.Get a netbook. 3. Purchase an online subscription. Sit outside with a cup of coffee, and the netbook.
Anonymous 1:39, 1:40…
Anytime you limit general access to an online model you’re making a mistake.
Instead, use those numbers to your advantage. For example, advertising. Professionally done retail/classified models open the door to profit.
This is a brave new world online, and if a company limits the viewership potential of their product where’s the advantage?
Do you pay to go on Craiglist? No. So how is this pay plan going to make money? I think someone needs to think outside the traditional box.
It’s all about numbers folks…
One has to wonder why the high advertising rates too. Rates a business charges CAN be an “eye-opener” as to how well off or not (solvency) that particular business is doing. Last time I checked ad rates, I knew T-S was in serious doo doo.
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District
The only result of this will be to drive readers towards the Rio Dell Times and other on-line news sources. Their business model just got a whole lot more competitive now that the Times-Standard has taken itself out of the game.
You can subsribe to a half dozen Humboldt blog feeds and a Humboldt news feed or two and you will rarely if ever need to go to the Times-Standard site for news. Most of the relevent local news appears elsewhere on the internet hours and sometimes days before it appears in the T-s.
This is not critical of the reporters. I think they downsized the reporters to the point where it is very difficult to cover lots of things locally. On the other hand, local blogs are increasingly reporting the news real time as it happens. It is just distributed news, and not from a central source. You will see more local independent blogger news in the future.
It is also clear that those who criticize the blogs as parasitical don’t seem to realize how much the reporters now rely on the blogs for news tips and story tips. So that is a two way street now the newspapers use the blogs just as much as the blogs use the newspapers.
have a peaceful day,
Bill
I read T-S everyday online and I won’t be paying. The content isn’t good enough to pay for.
Two more words: Jane Harman
Byebye Times-Standard.
Which begs the question: which interest groups, as well as individuals, FEAR BLOGS and WHY? The writing has been on the wall for years regarding the ineffectiveness of media to translate meaningful news to it’s support base (the consumer).
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District
Is this why they are advertising regular subscriptions for under $12 a month? I’m not talking about on-line but delivered to your house. I pay $48 a year for 6 days a week and have to purchase the Monday newspaper which usually has nothing in it anyway as I guess the reporters are all doing something else.
If you think blogs are a good primary source of news, whew, my mind is blown. I fear for society’s future.
I’m not opposed to it in principle if it’ll help keep them afloat, but there are plenty of free papers who do not wish to convey the message that their content is without value. Traditionally the vast majority of the revenue has come from sponsorship, but that’s probably changed.
On a normal day, there may be one article on the site I might click through and read. On a really extra special day, two.
I don’t blame the local reporters, they do what they can, but in all truth, there is not a lot going on locally day in day out that’s very interesting.
If the big boys in the industry can’t make online content pay, the arrogance of Singleton thinking he can astounds me, especially with the boring stuff they normally have to offer.
So I say goodbye to the T-S online.
You really don’t get it. Charging for the website isn’t about profiting from the website. It’s about slowing the blood loss from the print edition. When freeloaders get everything for free there is no incentive to pay, even if once in a blue moon for some special content.
In every way possible this is a smart move for Singleton. Every newspaper not already turning a profit on the web should stop giving its product away for free and refocus on what does work — the dead tree edition.
Maybe, if we’re lucky, 10 years from now freegans will once again recognize the value of paying people for hard work. Maybe… if we’re lucky.
Another name that should be remembered for the opposite (from Judith Miler) reason is Chris Hedges. The New York Times reprimanded him for expressing concern about the wisdom of our pending imperial adventure in Iraq. He resigned.
It is not so much a matter of what I think; rather, the media situation is indicative of what the consumers think on an ever expanding scale.
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District
Good point. Why would online advertisers want to advertise to a tiny number of subscribers. The “freeloaders” are not “dead weight,” they’re “unique visitors.”
What do you call it when a consumer does not get what they have paid for? Media is not immune from this question.
As far as communicating important news to a community – well, let us just say greed has turned many forms of communication into a profiteering venture. Communication is supposed to be free to a freeloader when the media outlet has provided that information on-line for free. How about the coffee shops with the numerous copies of T-S’s just floating around. Are the customers of these coffee houses freeloaders too because someone else purchased the paper and left it for others to read? Media is burning it’s own bridge, imo.
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District
there has to be value. this is only a smart move if it motivates people to buy the paper. if the subscriptions don’t cover the diminished value of the ads, the TS online is over. i wonder who the average TS reader is? i bet they are old as everybody i know gets their news online.
Yep!
I wonder which medium to deliver the news is better – using tree wastes or e-wastes?
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District
Many of these companies are jumping on the…”Bad Economy” bandwagon. but many companies have actually lost their customer base through arrogant exploitation. After reading and observing the Times-Standard’s performance through two wars, and the rise of the right. I say that paper is just another propaganda dissemination tool for the corporate class.
The press sold out long ago, and just like the extra recliner, and the new car, people are starting to realize there are a lot of things they don’t need.
Trying to make money the old way, in a new paradigm, is just plane stupid. Maybe they could try actually being part of the community, outside the police and District Attorney, and people might care.
The local side of a paper like the Times is just window-dressing to push the national “New-Speak.”
Year after year, the Times pushed the “Talking-Points,” of the criminals who shamed us.
In the 1990’s the Times would discredit anyone using the Web for research. The more inconvenient the truth, the more conspiratorial the nut-job had to be. I hear a lot about a “Free Press” when a newspaper is in financial trouble. Problem is, when it counts, newspapers fall right into goosestepping along side the traitors they themselves brought to power. Even now they serve their masters by giving space to right-wing extremists, who in a more just society would now be in jail.
Let Humboldt’s Pravda die a quick and certain death. And just maybe some enterprising writers will once again learn, that if you want people to support you, then you have to support the people. Not Dick Cheney, not Rupert Murdoch, but those of us earning less than a half a million a year. those of us who actually live here; or in my case, live near here.
If the Times-Standard had shown even the slightest evidence of any Balls during these recent dark ages, I would be first in line to support them. But, alas…
The free T-S online may be thin on stories, but for $39/year, I get the Times-Standard online showing every page identical to the print version. I’ve been subscribing since 1974 and this is the most convenient and easy-to-read format ever. An added bonus: I get to write e-mails directly to the reporters on the (rare) occasions when they make embarassing errors. And the reporters write back quickly. That never used to happen in the old days. $39/year for our local newspaper, available online, is a bargain. Getting the local news is too important for me to quit subscribing now.
Wait! Do you mean buy the paper that is printed on newsprint? Or do you mean buy the paper that looks identical to it but is available right now online for only 39 Dollars per Year?
Blog rumors are fun and all, and sometimes they turn out to be true, but I’d rather read that Bonnie Neely changed parties in a verified newspaper report than take Arkley’s word for it in a blog post.
Incorrect. The bulk of a newspaper’s expense is on newsprint, the printing process and delivery. Those costs don’t exist with a website. Granted, we’re in a nebulous period where people converting from print to online subscriptions will hurt the TS, but the transition has to start sometime (for a daily paper, anyway).
The smartest move would to simply stop web publication completely and force print subscriptions until the market for paid online news matures. The sad thing is that it’s newspapers themselves that created this problem by giving their product away for free for the past decade.
Right on comrade brother. Power to the people, rise up & slay the master corporate enemy. The Times Standard is a tool of the corporate muggers. Wal-mart is a conservative conspiracy to brain wash us. We didn’t land on the moon, it was a TV studio run by ATT.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
you make the assumption the print version will continue to have value and the online version will too. i tend to agree that a blog post does not generally carry the integrity of a news story, but that is not always the case. eventually, the system will shake itself out with credibility being a factor. it is not as important now since most information can be cross-checked in a matter of minutes and challenged. this was not previously possible. the future does not look good for the newspapers, in my opinion.
Dear High,
We did land on the moon. We had to prove that capitalism could land missiles with better accuracy than communism.
Wal-Mart is not a conservative conspiracy. It is a logical though sad consequence of capitalism’s ability to shift manufacturing to countries with work forces desperate enough to work for slave wages.
And the Times-Standard is not a tool of the corporate muggers. It is just what happens when a capitalist entity with no connection to a community tries to keep labor costs down while extracting ad revenue.
Power to the people, right on! Definitely.
You’re welcome.
Anon 9:21 – Well stated. The Times-Standard is a local newspaper, a Humboldt County institution that unfortunately is owned by a large corporation based in another state that is in business to make money rather than put out a quality journalism product. Sadly, because of the downturn of the newspaper industry, the focus has become even more extreme in favor of the former at the expense of the latter. The corporation forces the T-S to operate with a bare-bones staff so it can suck as much profit as possible out of the newspaper to cover its massive losses elsewhere. The elimination of competition by the Eureka Reporter allowed the corporation to jack up local ad rates and pare down its staff. The T-S newsroom staff is local, they live here because they want to, and some of them are quite good.
What distresses me is the story about Bonnie Neely switching parties in TODAY’s Times-Standard. This has been circulating in the political community for a month. It was on this blog a week ago. The fact the T-S is just now getting around to reporting it is distressing for those who want to see our only local daily thrive. There’s a new rumor that Virginia Bass is also going to defect from the Elephants to the Donkeys. So T-S check it out – if Bass is planning to switch, report it first.
You have it right Moviedad!
The idea is just plain stupid. They’re shooting themselves in the foot trying to use an outdated business model. Why do you think the rest of the nation’s newspapers aren’t hopping on that band wagon?
If you’re interested in what other newspapers think of Singleton’s brainstorm then go to: http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45&aid=163508 to see the actual memo and read the comments.
Very enlightening…
The only thing that stands out as being a positive for the print media regarding credibility is the fact that most of the time, you will see a “real” name referenced either at the beginning or end of the article or news story. However, as it has been discussed, credibility does not stop at the point of where one decides not to divulge their true identity; and, credibiltiy does not necessarily exist for those who leave a “real” name when you can break down the issue opposite of those pursuasions and claims that were made to win over the minds of others. When more people can overcome their FEAR TO EXPRESS THEIR VIEWPOINTS & KNOWLEDGE, then America will be able to move forward into a brighter future. Until then, this FEAR that was created by government officials and their ilk for the sole purpose of government and corporate control shall continue to rule the day, and night too.
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District
Really? Because in the last few weeks there have been several articles about major newspapers considering going to a nothing-for-free business model.
Much in these comments misses the point. The journalistic quality of the products (online and print) the Times-Standard produces is quite low. The only reason they have any market share at all is monopoly. I am quite willing to pay for a product I can use and appreciate. This ain’t it.
What are you… High? Great way to associate the real crimes of the recent administration, with fantasies about conspiracies. I guess you all stick to the ol’ tried and true methods of misdirection.
well that’s that. guess I won’t be reading the substandard anymore.
“On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it’s so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against each other.” – Stewart Brand, Whole Earth Review (1984)
Maybe you should get all the facts Herald. There is more to this story then you have now! Keep digging! It’s for others to post articles, not for readers to read them.
TIMES STANDARD, NATION SECTION, SATURDAY, JUNE 21, 2008:
ALL FOUR STORIES:
#1)Car plows into New York Crowd
#2)Woman said to have run over her mom.
#3)Man accused of hiding in couch
#4)Teacher reportedly burned kids
Yes, that’s all that happened worth reporting in the U.S. on June 21, 2008!
If the TS cannot clean up their act to make a real community paper people want to read, thus, attracting enough local ad revenues from all those pop-up ads, and the ads left behind like gristle stuck in a tooth, I’m outta there!
Lake County News ask for a $5-per-month support subscription, but anyone can view their pages, subbed or not.
http://lakeconews.com/
“Support LakeCoNews
Paid subscriptions of $5 each month support operating costs including servers and hosting, document fees and freelancers.
Please take the opportunity to show your support for local news.”
Yeah, well here’s a Man Bites Dog story:
http://arcataeye.com/index.php?module=Pagesetter&tid=2&topic=3&func=viewpub&pid=1208&format=full