At a Price
Minnesota newspaper starts charging for some online content.
By
Kathryn S. Wenner
Kathryn S. Wenner, a former AJR associate editor, is a copy editor at the Washington Post.
The free ride is over for online readers of Rochester, Minnesota's Post-Bulletin. As of April 30, only subscribers have access to news content beyond headlines on the newspaper's Web site. Classifieds are free. "The model of giving away the same news online that we charge for is not a sustainable way of doing business," says Jon Losness, general manager and editor. Those who live within the paper's circulation area have to purchase a print subscription to obtain a password to the site; more-distant readers have to pay $60 a year for access. The Post-Bulletin joins a handful of other local papers that have stopped giving it away. Since the Lewiston Morning Tribune in Idaho started charging for Web news in December 1999, about half the number of people who dropped their print subscriptions when the paper went online now pay to get their news electronically, says Editor and Publisher A.L. Alford Jr.
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