LB Bill said:
I am afraid the quality of the journalism in the PT would have to improve dramatically before I would pay for it. I usually find that details are not included, and basic questions are not answered in their articles. One would think that local sports is all that happens in Long Beach, given what's in the local news - PT or elsewhere.
Shaun said:
Just received a letter from the PT thanking me for renewing my subscription and with my subscription I will have free access to thei web content as well. They will be charging really soon for internet content!
Cleopatra said:
NOPE!!!
CHS said:
I already don't pay for the print PT. Why would I want to pay for the online PT?
Lynn said:
My subscription just ran out and I didn't renew and would not pay to read on-line. It's just not worth reading any more. No in deepth stuff!
Nothing of substance
in it.
Dennis said:
Cliff Dweller & Darwin Thorpe crack me up! Cliff Dweller seems to think the AP is unbiased reporting and Thorpe is probably correct in saying that the P-T is "the most conservative" but saying anyone in the newspaper editorial business is the "most conservative" is hardly a standard of bias. The P-T does a very good job of including guest editorials from different perspectives and letters from residents on both sides of issues. Cliff and Darwin show their tremendous bias with their own comments. The P-T and Media News' demise is not so much as what is IN the paper but what is NOT in the paper: good, solid, local content and stories--with a local bias.
Phil said:
Craigslist has destroyed these smaller paper's ad revenue stream. Coupled with a collapsing auto industry who's dealers provide up to 25% of newspapers ad revenue this is not surprising. WSJ.com provides their readers exclusive content thus their ability to get people to pay. If PT charges, LBPOST and others wins. Congrats LBPOST!
cyndie said:
Sounds like MediaNews is pounding that last nail in the PT's coffin.
miles said:
absurd idea! i won't pay for it.
JR Salazar said:
Well, this sure is gonna you guys innit?
Evan said:
Looks like I'll get a majority of my news from LBPOST and the Grunion now ...
Susan said:
I certainly hope they upgrade their site if they plan on charging for it. It is a nightmare trying to navigate it as is. I don't think I've ever found what I was looking for on my first try, especially anything archived!
LB Boy said:
I wouldn't pay a nickle more tp he PT Smelagram! I already pay for their daily rag just to know what's up in my town but I hav eto say that having lived in several mid to large cities around the U.S., the PTT is a trully poor paper. Their stories are not in depth, their analysis is rudimentary and their general level of intelligence is just plain low. I suppose it's because of the fact that they are just a cog in a hugh corporate media processor ("Media Group"), but it is really pitiful to see all the bylines from out of town nes syndicates. They even had the disgrace to run one in their Op-Ed section a while ago. It just tells us that they cannot write their own stories and can't even always write their own opinions! Just pitiful... They also regularly ignore important state and national news, instead plastering local banalities across the front page. The important news is usually relegated to a few sparse paragraphs deep inside. So, no, I would NOT pay for their drivel online and I hope they do charge for it and hasten their demise so that better journalism, like that found here at LBPOST.COM, can gain readerss attention and displace the brain-dead corporate pap being spoon-fed to us now.
Cliff Dweller said:
The biggest problem with on-line blog-sources like LBpost is the loss of editorial control and the fact that there is no real company to enforce the journalistic integrity of its reporters. Today anyone can post a story, that is full of personal bias and it gets accepted as “news”. Because these sources are free and more immediate that the traditional ink newspapers, or even the web versions of the paper, they have all but replaced real news.
The Press Telegram is going to go away; the loss is caused by a combination of blogs and big media conglomerates gobbling up the smaller local news sources. It’s cheaper to get your news from the AP than it is to pay an army of reporters. The end result is that we have lost our un-biased local news, and that just feeds the blogosphere.
It’s just one of the subtle things feeding the demise of our nation... Keep up the good work LBpost, soon your opinions will be our only news source.
Stupid Idea, P-T said:
Are they trying to commit suicide? Seriously, I can purchase a hard copy of the paper weekly for the same price. Not to mention I will have at least bought paper for my dog to take a crap on. I will not paper 1.99 for some virtual piece of crap. There are so many media outlets in Long Beach now I'd gladly turn to any of those other publications, that are free on stands or online. Stupid P-T!
Another LB Resident said:
In today's economy the daily newspapers might not make it. I always look to our community newspaper, the Grunion Gazette for local news in print and online. They are and always have been free nor do they use stories from AP. I will continue to support and trust our community newspapers. In times like these - that's what we have, our community, each other. Of course papers will need to figure out a way to survive and it seems like advertising dollars are the first to go, which really makes no sense... if you are not going to promote your business... who will? And who does not like free?
Rickatsea said:
I feel it is time for all those involved in the news industry to develop a central agency or trade association to handle billing, collections and distribution of funds.
Articles of interest from groups like AP would become available to all members including any other written by members.
They distribution of funds would depend on demand received.
Should one small newspaper send a really interesting article and it receives a great interest, so then why not pay that company its due?
Large news companies would have to produce better quality articles and everyone would be on an even playing field.
As for me, I still subscribe to the LA Times, the Press Telegram, read your articles and a half dozen other magazines.
drnoe said:
Why would anybody pay to access an AP story from the P-T's website? I find it hard to believe the P-T would be able to generate that many online subscribers.
The WSJ supposedly has a subscription-based model, but it is very easy to bypass. Just type in an article's title on Google and then click on the link to read the entire article.
LB Resident said:
Love it or hate it; the PT has been the premier print publication in Long Beach for many, many years. It is too bad that it has been unable to adapt to the new-media landscape. They do not have an online model to follow, so like many other traditional media they are trying to figure out how to maintain something resembling their current infrastructure while competing in the "e"-rena. Unfortunately I don't think that the subscription method will be viable given the competitive content that is available without a subscription. I hate to say goodbye to a Long Beach icon but if they don't find a model then the PT era will probably come to an end...
John Sefton said:
The online versions should support themselves with advertising, just as the print versions do. The cost of most newspapers never has covered the editorial content. Usually, it does not even cover the cost of the newsprint and distibution. So online versions should actually be cost savings for the newspapers. They just need to perfect their advertising model.
Darwin Thorpe said:
I think the problem with the PT is that they have the most conservative Op Ed page in the business; virtually no economic or political balance, in cartoons, prose, and story selection. I rarely see the online, so what they do there wont affect me.
cantor said:
Well, we knew it was coming. As important as it is to have a "Hometown" paper, the PT has progessively gone the path of the gossip column. The negative stance the PT continually takes in a City that continually has good news to report is astonishing. A City as great as Long Beach deserves to have a paper that reflects a positive, progressive, engaging newspaper. Stop leading with death, destruction and UP and AP articles, bought to fill column inches. The Long Beach Business Journal and the Grunion which the PT owns I believe reports the news in a less negative and more informative manner. Wake up guys or go the way of the extinct..!
John said:
I'd be willing to pay for online access to the PT, but only if they could return to good investigative reporting and exclusive coverage of Long Beach and surrounding areas. Given their current printed verison is so very lean due to no staff and whatever, they're already over charging. And, they face stiff competition from LB Post, LB Report and The District who all have far better reporting on local news (hope I'm not giving anyone any ideas here....) But as of right now and without major changes, I wouldn't consider the PT as anything but a litter box liner.
Chris said:
With the poor quality of writing and reporting there is no way I will pay for the PT to read it. As is now the Gazette is better at reporting local news than the PT. So is this BLOG. Why bother? Unless they are able to increase the quality of their local reporting and relevance to even moderately acceptable levels, they will fail to attract readers. In fact, they will need to do that FIRST before people will start paying for the content. To even attempt to compare their model to the WSJ, LAT, or NYT is a joke. Those all deliver quality reporting. I understand it's local news, but so is the San Jose Mercury News which I read at least weekly, and the quality of writing and relevance is substantially better than what the PT provides. These Newspapers seem to forget that quality of content is the #1 thing that will bring readers, and for that, the PT fails. They wonder why they've become irrelevant? They have failed at what they need to be #1 at, quality local reporting and quality writing.
shiborigirl said:
I have no problem paying for good affordable online content. Heck, I already pay for half-baked content via the daily LA Times. Even the Times is a shell of its former self. And you can forget TV news- you can't even call it news. I happen to like reading the actual paper vs the computer-I have enough screen time as it is. My personal experience with the PT is that neither the print NOR the online version satisfies- free or subscription it currently doesn't even matter.
Maybe eventually things will change, or they won't and the PT will just disappear. We may all have to dig a little deeper and reach a little farther ourselves to find out what is really going on out there.
Ryan Z said:
Kate, some reports have said that MediaNews will not require subscribers to the paper to pay for online content, although without comment from the P-T I can't give you a straight answer.
Kate K said:
I'm not surprised--the Internet's been free for too long. It makes sense to charge and I imagine that people will pay for what they want. However, if one is a paper subscriber, will an online subscription be also necessary, or will the paper subscriber have to purchase an additional subscription?
I subscribe, and have not yet read anything in particular, nor have I been offered an online subscription.
Chris said:
Sine the PT now resembles my high school newspaper in size and content, I'm sure on-line access will be included in my annual subscription. If not, we'll miss our 35 year morning read.
Dennis said:
I always think it is funny when people get upset when a business wants to charge something for a product it used to provide at no charge. Classic was the uproar when McDonald's tried to charge for water! Water! People complained about it, completely disregarding the cost to McDonalds had to buy the cups...and the water. For anyone to be outraged or upset because they can no longer get something for free that costs someone to give away for free is somewhat indicative of the welfare state mentality. If Media News decides to charge for the content and stories it pays to obtain--be it through wire service or writers and editors--that is their business, literally. Being upset about it does not affect the decision, what will affect the decision is whether people subscribe to the new service or not. The number of subscribers they have will drive their content and their advertising revenue, just like with the print edition. Unfortunately Media News has gutted local coverage, so as you mention there is no real reason to subscribe to any of their on-line services. The Press-Telegram is down to one columnist (Grobaty) and a few reporters for City Hall, some police stuff and the port. I still hold out hope that a local business person/entreprenuer will purchase the P-T and get it back to a good daily local paper we can read with our coffee in the morning. Until then we can pull up a laptop and watch the on-line pay per page experiment fail...or succeed but I won't bet on it.
Nikol said:
No
Nick Brown said:
I think it sucks that they are about to start charging to read it on-line. For somebody like me who no longer lives in Long Beach and still wants to keep up on whats going down around home, it saddens me. If people still had subscriptions to them ( I had mine for over 7 years) it may not have to come to this
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