Wednesday, December 28, 2011

MJS to Charge for Online Content

This is interesting.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s digital subscription program is set to begin Jan. 4.

With its digital offering, called “JS Everywhere,” the Journal Sentinel will offer access to JSOnline.com, the Journal Sentinel e-edition, its mobile site for smartphones, plus coming iPad and other digital applications for a subscriber’s fee. Readers who subscribe to the print edition of the newspaper will receive free access to all digital products. Web content previously available on the pay site Packer Insider will be included as part of JS Everywhere subscriptions.

Under the JS Everywhere plan, online readers will be able to read as many as 20 articles per month at no charge, but after reaching that threshold, will be prompted to become a print or digital subscriber.

I suppose it was only a matter of time. The MJS is in the business of making money and that’s hard to do when they give away their content for free. I suppose that I’m in the same boat as a lot of Wisconsin bloggers. I’ve been using the MJS’ online content for free for years. Will I pay for it? Do they provide enough vital and unique content to justify paying $100 a year or so for it? I’m not sure.

(8) Comments
Posted by Owen at 1214 hrs
The Blog

  1. So in other words, it’ll be like The New York Times, where someone will design a simple, web-based workaround to avoid the overlay that the MJS will slap on the screen.

    That’s the thing about these media companies.  Most desperately want the traffic that comes from Google’s indexing, but to get it, they can’t put their articles behind a password-protected paywall.

    I look forward to dodging their subscription prompts starting next week.

    Posted by Recess Supervisor on December 28, 2011 at 1300 hrs


  2. 100 a year? That’s only about .27 a day. I don’t see it as out of line. Of course, I’d prefer it free.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 28, 2011 at 1311 hrs


  3. . The MJS is in the business of making money and that’s hard to do when they give away their content for free.

    The Atlantic is doing exactly that, and it making money for the first time in years.

    Supposedly (meaning I can’t find the article about this that I read a few weeks ago) they realized they are in the business of ‘producing content’ first, and ‘printing a magazine’ is only one way of doing that.

    But they are a big-time magazine with a lot of ‘Atlantic only’ content to differentiate them.  What does MJS have that the Tulsa World doesn’t, or a paper in Madison, or Boots and Sabers?

    Posted by Brian Dunbar on December 28, 2011 at 1316 hrs


  4. If MJS is going to charge for content, I’ll only pay for it if the content improves.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 28, 2011 at 1319 hrs


  5. “Do they provide enough vital and unique content to justify paying $100 a year or so for it?”

    Easy answer - No.  The so-called columnists and reporters haven’t broken a decent story in years. 

    Plus, anybody with even an ounce of conservative blood in their veins should refrain from economically supporting a depraved organization like MJS.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 28, 2011 at 1321 hrs


  6. What does MJS have that the Tulsa World doesn’t, or a paper in Madison, or Boots and Sabers?

    That’s my question. There’s an occasional breaking story, but primarily it’s a clearing house for stories. They do have their semi-annual series grasping for another Pulitzer, but those are usually mind-numbingly boring.

    Posted by Owen on December 28, 2011 at 1350 hrs


  7. The only newspapers making money are charging for their online content.

    Unfortunately for MJS, their content isn’t good enough to charge for. It will be interesting to see if they can make more money by charging for content, versus the money the will lose from the lack of impressions on their online ads.

    My prediction - MJS is circling the drain, this change won’t stop that. They aren’t fixing the root cause of the problem. Typical business.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 28, 2011 at 1602 hrs


  8. The Oz/Wash reporter has not set foot in Washington County in over 3 years.  MJS would have to have content before I would pay.

    Posted by bill meyers on December 29, 2011 at 0653 hrs


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