Free or paid? Why we ask our readers to buy the paper
Dear readers:
There is a crisis in the Ukraine, a missing airliner in Southeast Asia, and a mess in Washington, D.C., and you can read about all of those stories in the Daily Inter Lake.
You can also read them for free at www.dailyinterlake.com, our online news site, but you can’t read about some other news stories that may interest you on our revamped website such as local election filings, the Kalispell council’s discussion of impact fees, or all those great performances by our local prep basketball teams.
Local news, with a few exceptions, is now available online only to our subscribers. We know that confuses some of you, so I wanted to take a few minutes to explain the whys and wherefores of the changes on our website.
Essentially, www.dailyinterlake.com is now what is called a “metered” website. You can look at five stories a month free, but after that, you will only be able to see the headline and possibly a few words of the story unless you have either a print or digital subscription.
Some people think they will be able to do without the Daily Inter Lake, but if you care about your local community, I don’t think many of you will find that to be the case. Most of our local stories are not available on the AP wire, nor do they appear in other local newspapers or websites. Not the comprehensive local government coverage we offer, not the weddings and engagements, not the community news, not the sports coverage for more than seven local high schools.
The bottom line is that to support our news-gathering staff, which is the largest in Northwest Montana, we have to sell newspapers, whether in print or online. If we give the stories away free, there is considerably less reason for people to buy the paper, and thus less money to support the news staff. If you want to read about local schools, police, parks, government, sports, recreation and much more, then we hope you will continue to support your local daily newspaper.
Naturally, we do sell advertising on the web version, and that is a growing revenue source, but it can’t support the large staff required at a daily newspaper, so we are asking our readers to do what they have always done — support us with your subscriptions so that we can continue to write about you, your business, your friends and your neighbors.
The main issue, as I see it, is whether we should be paid for the news content we produce, or whether we should give it away. Most newspapers have always charged for their content. It was only when the Internet appeared that publishers (perhaps out of a fear of becoming irrelevant otherwise) thought they could give it away. Many newspapers have vanished as a result (Talk about irrelevant!), so now the trend is to charge for content regardless of platform.
It is understandable that some readers will rebel against paying because they have been trained to expect their Internet news for free. But it just isn’t a practical model for success. There are few vendors, indeed, who could afford to sell widgets to one set of clients and to give away the same exact widgets to another set of clients, especially as more and more people discovered the advantages of free widgets and decided to stop paying for them.
It’s an entitlement kind of mentality, and most newspapers are trying to take back ownership of their content, and reminding the public of its value. That’s why the Inter Lake decided to charge for its widgets again — across the board.
And despite the occasional complaint we have received in the first three weeks of March, I have to say that you, our dedicated readers, have been very supportive. In fact, though we have seen a slight decline in visitors to our website, the number of daily page views has held steady and last week was actually more than 1,000 higher on average than in the last week of February.
So thanks for your patience, as we make this transition. I hope you enjoy the expanded content available at www.dailyinterlake.com and also take advantage of the new e-edition replica version of the Inter Lake which is also available to all subscribers.
If you want more information about subscribing, or getting your existing subscription to work online for you, give me a call or send me an email. I’d be happy to help. — Frank