Our local paper is following that limited article trend - someone sent me a link this morning, and I couldn't click on it since I'd already gone through my 10 article limit for the month without realizing it.
The odd thing is that a) our local paper, in general, sucketh mightily (I did, however, click on the Zimmerman coverage, thus going over the limit) except in its coverage of Disney and Universal -- coverage, I might add, that often leads to me and others heading to both places and spending money, and b) our local paper is also about the only place where I look at and respond to ads for various things, because the ads are somewhat relevant.
I realize circulation rates for this paper are declining, but it's not because people are choosing to read the online articles for free instead of subscribing to the paper; it's because the coverage sucks. My advice to the Orlando Sentinel would be to improve the quality of the articles so people want to read them, instead of saying, "Yeah, well, it was the Orlando Sentinel, so the article didn't say much," and focus on advertising revenue, which might increase if people had a reason to visit the site, or didn't think, oh, I've gone through my article limit, never mind. Maybe charge Disney for their ongoing Daily Disney coverage (which is one of the few decent features of the paper.) Or something.
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The odd thing is that a) our local paper, in general, sucketh mightily (I did, however, click on the Zimmerman coverage, thus going over the limit) except in its coverage of Disney and Universal -- coverage, I might add, that often leads to me and others heading to both places and spending money, and b) our local paper is also about the only place where I look at and respond to ads for various things, because the ads are somewhat relevant.
I realize circulation rates for this paper are declining, but it's not because people are choosing to read the online articles for free instead of subscribing to the paper; it's because the coverage sucks. My advice to the Orlando Sentinel would be to improve the quality of the articles so people want to read them, instead of saying, "Yeah, well, it was the Orlando Sentinel, so the article didn't say much," and focus on advertising revenue, which might increase if people had a reason to visit the site, or didn't think, oh, I've gone through my article limit, never mind. Maybe charge Disney for their ongoing Daily Disney coverage (which is one of the few decent features of the paper.) Or something.
But this doesn't seem to be the approach.