Techdirt To Not Charge Readers For Content

from the just-saying dept

Fri, May 11th 2012 3:01am — Mike Masnick

Okay, this one's just for fun, but seeing that Canadian national newspaper the Globe & Mail has announced that it's following on the pointless trend of putting metered paywalls up for online publications, and announcing it like it's a big deal, we figured it might be nice to remind people that some (actually, er, most) online publications are still doing just fine publishing for free. But, if they can get news out of making life worse for their readers and community, why can't we make some news out of the fact that we like to treat our community right, and let them read our stuff for free, and freely share it and talk about it? I don't see how making life more difficult for readers, limiting them, demanding that they pay and letting them do less in terms of sharing the content will do much to make people more interested in the site. As for the claims that the Globe & Mail is struggling, as Globe alum Mathew Ingram points out, perhaps they shouldn't be building new office space...

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: canada, globe and mail, mathew ingram, news, paywall

47 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 11 May 2012 @ 3:21am

and perhaps give customers more reason to visit?
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Anonymous Coward, 11 May 2012 @ 3:32am

so are you then gonna remove all the advertising on your site??
or of course you want to make some money, you just don't want to charge the readers for it?

just wondering
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The eejit (profile), 11 May 2012 @ 3:38am

Re:
You do realise that ads probably only make maybe $100 for the site/month, right? Which would probably be just enough to cover hosting costs.
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FM Hilton, 11 May 2012 @ 3:39am

Pay Walls
Now if they could come up with more interesting news that I'd be willing to pay for.

I don't understand why all the newspapers with pay walls think that their version of the news is so special that they need their readers to pay for it.

They're all quickly turning irrelevant and worthless.

Oh, and thanks for letting us read Techdirt for free. Guess that's why you're not building a new headquarters, right?

Sorry, we're cheap that way.
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justok (profile), 11 May 2012 @ 4:02am

Only make the people that don't visit your site pay.
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David, 11 May 2012 @ 4:09am

i didn't think to read the Globe when it was free, now that they are charging definitely won't now either.
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John Doe, 11 May 2012 @ 4:10am

John Doe to not charge news outlets for his time or eyeballs
I, John Doe, pledge not to charge news outlets for my time reading their content. Not only will I not charge them for my time, I also pledge to allow them to make money serving me ads.
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abc gum, 11 May 2012 @ 4:31am

Re:
Not sure what your point is - did the Globe & Mail state they were removing ads?
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abc gum, 11 May 2012 @ 4:37am

Re: John Doe to not charge news outlets for his time or eyeballs
Filthy eyeball pirates can go rot in hell. They think they can just steal your time and attention serving up their flashy trashy whilst demanding payment for the privilege!
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ASTROBOI, 11 May 2012 @ 4:41am

And furthermore......
It should be noted that this site allows comments without opening an account, providing email addresses, facebook accounts, or personal information. It's a real contrast to other sites that severly restrict who may post yet display comments that are spam ads for Chinese trainers and "my girlfriends auntie makes loads of money with her computer" cons, all apparently made by approved posters.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 May 2012 @ 4:42am

Re: John Doe to not charge news outlets for his time or eyeballs
What about contributions you make to the community through comments? Will that be free to?

Surely you'll charge when you deign to respond to comments of others. Not charging for that would be CRAZY! There would be no incentive to interact with the populace filth at all!
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Yogi, 11 May 2012 @ 4:44am

Dreams
"If you build it, they will pay"
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SUNWARD (profile), 11 May 2012 @ 4:51am

building not an issue
the building will be a multi-tenant one with.

With the price of real estate in Toronto, the paper is just taking advantage of the increase. Currently their building is a 2 or 3 story one.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 May 2012 @ 4:51am

Re: And furthermore......
Even trolling is monetarily free here.

Sure it will cost the troll in terms of lost reputation and discrediting their stance through strawman and ad hominem attacks, fear mongering and other forms of obviously poor logic. But it doesn't cost any actual money, and that's the only economic incentive the trolls seem to recognize anyway.
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Bas Grasmayer (profile), 11 May 2012 @ 4:56am

Re:
10 points for not understanding the difference between "not charging readers money directly" and the desire to make money off of a website.
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Bennett (profile), 11 May 2012 @ 5:47am

One Less Source of Old Repetitive News
I will no longer be reading the Globe, and I'm not that broken up about it. One less news source that's generally a few hours behind the rest of the Internet anyway. Unlike the NY Times, I doubt the Globe can even afford a $50,000,000.00 pay wall that sort of works.
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Ninja (profile), 11 May 2012 @ 5:51am

Aw snap.. Maybe if you add a paywall the trolls will go away? There go my hopes =////

/sarc
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Anonymous Coward, 11 May 2012 @ 6:00am

oh yuuck, paywalls.
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That Anonymous Coward (profile), 11 May 2012 @ 6:24am

So your supposed to say Candy Man 3 times to get him to show up. You say Bloody Mary 3 times to get her to show up.

How many more times do we have to say paywall to get bob to show up!?
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technomage (profile), 11 May 2012 @ 6:52am

Re:
Bob/TAM/AD usually show up when "Free" is mentioned more than three times in a single comment/post. Then they do their best to give their "free" opion on anything that is "free"....oh hell.....3.....2.....1.....
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Anonymous Coward, 11 May 2012 @ 6:57am

Re:
It's still kinda early (at least where I'm at). Maybe bob is preparing his completely off topic rant. You know, fact checking it, verifying information with legitimate sources, etc.

HAHAHAHA!

Oh man, sorry. I just couldn't say that with a straight face/without cracking up.

But seriously, an article like this, with that headline. Oh, you better believe bob will be putting in an appearance before the end of the day. In fact several. I guarantee it.
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ltlw0lf (profile), 11 May 2012 @ 7:04am

Re:
or of course you want to make some money, you just don't want to charge the readers for it?

Techdirt has ads?!? Oh, oops, turning off adblocker for this site. Sorry about that Mike.
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Tech42 (profile), 11 May 2012 @ 7:46am

Oh no, not a paywall!!
This means I'll be forced to read copied-and-pasted Canadian Press releases on one of the other several hundred news sites which "report" the same, word-for-word, story, but not with that nice G&M font!!
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Anonymous Coward, 11 May 2012 @ 7:52am

Re:
of course, by not visiting the site they are literally stealing as that prevents ad impressions and takes food out of Mike's mouth.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 May 2012 @ 7:58am

Re: Re: John Doe to not charge news outlets for his time or eyeballs
All businesses want to be able to monetize like music labels and banks do, especially banks.

In retail it would work like this.
How much is this chocolate bar? - 50 cents
I'll buy it, here's a dollar. - and here's your 20 cents change
20 cents, the bar is 50 cents I should get 50 cents change - - Well you did check the price with us sir, our price confirmation charge is 10 cents.
That's ridiculous and it doesn't even explain the other 20 cents you weren't giving me - That would be the cash handling charge Sir
I want to speak to the Manager - Certainly Sir, that'll be 20 dollars, or you can leave him a note if you prefer.
And how much would that be - It's on special today Sir, only $7.50

Fnaaah

All the newspapers want is for you to pay to read the advertisements that they get paid to show you, it's not a big ask really is it?
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Anonymous Coward, 11 May 2012 @ 8:04am

Pretty sure the top of this site says "Reasons to Buy."

Also... if only we all could get $$$ to act as IP haters from Google and friends, we could all write for "free"...
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McCrea (profile), 11 May 2012 @ 8:15am

Lifetime subscription
I paid $1200 for a lifetime subscription to Techdirt. Do I get a refund?
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Atkray (profile), 11 May 2012 @ 8:20am

Re:
*waits for hoodies
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NullOp, 11 May 2012 @ 8:27am

Da Net
This is a case of one party understanding the internet and one party that does not. And besides, the other guys are Canadian so what ya gonna do...
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The Groove Tiger (profile), 11 May 2012 @ 8:34am

This is, of course, just another kind of paywall. By giving the content for free, you create a cost for people that don't come here, thus, it's a paywall of freeness. People might want to be blocked from this site or have metered reading limits or something, and you're FORCING them to be able to come here and read for free! See? Paywall!

And Big Search, Big IT, Big Ben, Big Mac and Deuce Biggelow.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 May 2012 @ 8:51am

Re: Re: Re: John Doe to not charge news outlets for his time or eyeballs
If you can't make money while being payed to show people content which you were already payed to show them, you probably deserve to go out of business.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 May 2012 @ 8:55am

Re:
paywall
paywall
paywall

you're welcome
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Anonymous Coward, 11 May 2012 @ 8:57am

Re: Lifetime subscription
For $1200, I would hope you get a 12" fully poseable Mike Masnick figurine...
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Anonymous Coward, 11 May 2012 @ 8:59am

Re: Re: Lifetime subscription
"It's not a doll! It's a figurine!"
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That Anonymous Coward (profile), 11 May 2012 @ 9:20am

Re: Re:
it didn't work... *sigh*
is it sad to miss the random its a paywall rant?
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technomage (profile), 11 May 2012 @ 10:47am

Found Bob.....he's playing HBO shill while torrenting GoT and getting payola from the *iaa's and blowing it on smack and "cultured female mobile GPS units" found at 1st and Broad...
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Lord of the Files, 11 May 2012 @ 12:28pm

Re: Re:
The trolls around here truly do make for an excellent example of why one should stay in school. Either that or it shows just how badly the education system is failing our society. Looking at the troll brigades track record, I'd wager it's probably a bit of both.
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iambinarymind (profile), 11 May 2012 @ 1:04pm

school system designed this way...
The schooling system is not failing, it's doing exactly what it was designed to do.

"The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed a standard citizenry, to put down dissent and originality."
~ H.L. Mencken ~

If anyone would like to learn more about the origins & true aim of government compulsory schooling, check out:
The Ultimate History Lesson: A Weekend with John Taylor Gatto [Free on YouTube]

The information contained within the linked video is extremely important context to understanding the reality of compulsory schooling and all that results from such a policy.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 May 2012 @ 5:47pm

Sorry Mike,
Ooops, hit 'enter' instead of 'tab'

We now return you to your previously scheduled comment...

Sorry Mike,
Though I understand the value of a website, and the attempt to make money off of it, I run adblock, here's why:

In a perfect world, The Net would be free. Both as in speech and as in beer, there would be no need to have ads on your site, because the costs associated with your site would be gone.

Information should be free, and open to anyone. Although I realize that in my 'perfect' world, favorites such as amazon, ebay et al may not exist, there is something to be said for brick and mortar, Instant gratification.

The internet was designed primarily so people could freely share and exchange information, and quite simply too many are making money off of it, it has become like our american holidays, overtly commercialized.

I appreciate the ability to freely post comments on your site, and have followed it for a while now, but I run Adblock. Not specifically targeted at you, but at the commercialization of the internet.

/soapbox
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Anonymous Coward, 11 May 2012 @ 7:08pm

Re:
Wow! Who's getting paid to act as IP haters from Google and friends? I'm pretty sure the shills have been crying for stronger IP, not saner, and few have said no IP.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 May 2012 @ 7:11pm

Re: Sorry Mike,
Aaaand....? What was the point of your rant, precisely? He knows people run Adblock. The adverts aren't even the primary monetization. The business (you know? Floor64?) tends to pay for Techdirt...
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That Anonymous Coward (profile), 11 May 2012 @ 11:09pm

Re:
mobile entertainment provider...
its like an ipod... with herpes.
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That Anonymous Coward (profile), 11 May 2012 @ 11:10pm

Re:
if and when it appears... I made a funny...
it was so funny I tripped the moderation filter...
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F!, 20 May 2012 @ 6:26pm

Re: Re: Sorry Mike,
I suspect AC's point may have been that ads on the internet are bad for the health and overall usefulness internet. They're like a minor paywall and every site that uses the ad model degrades the internet just a little more. I remember the 'good old days' of the free/open web and tend to agree with the AC, if indeed this is his/her point.

I can understand the temptation to run ads, but the websites I run (one of which I offer original digital content under a CC BY-NC license) all provide a choice of paypal(yuck, we desperately need a better alternative!) or Flattr to donate. Another website I have sells my & my partner's hand-crafted jewelry, so we make money directly from the product and don't need ads. While we aren't raking in the cash, my partner has been able to quit their day-job entirely and I've been able to cut my hours in half. This actually allows us to focus more time making jewelry & digital content.

Adblock is a godsend and not one to be apologized for. There are alternatives to the outmoded ad model!

(I also intentionally don't provide links to my sites in comments, as that would qualify as spam, IMHO) ;)
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Niall (profile), 23 May 2012 @ 4:34am

Re: Re: Re: Lifetime subscription
Just so long as he has a big club and is posed smacking a troll down.
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Niall (profile), 23 May 2012 @ 4:37am

Re: Re: Re: Sorry Mike,
You can do it in your profile, as a weblink, for those who might be interested.
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Niall (profile), 23 May 2012 @ 5:55am

Re: Re: Re: Sorry Mike,
You can do it in your profile, as a weblink, for those who might be interested.
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