Online Newspaper Coverage

[AlbanyObserver]

Can someone please tell the Daily Gazette and Troy Record to get a clue!!!!!!! How can you call yourself a legit newspaper organization and not offer free online coverage???? I could understand paying an online fee for viewing the New York Times or Boston Globe, but the Gazette charging????? Come on, what are they smoking?????? The Record has limited coverage that is usually updated three weeks after the fact. Kudos to the Times Union if that is the point of this post. I can wake up every morning and be assured up-to-date info is available.

 

Those other two news organizations need to get their acts together!!!! I am sure their coverage is fine in the print option, but I am not buying three newspapers on a daily basis.

[MIKEDANES04]

Yea those sites are terrible as far as the web goes.

[DaneFan2k3]

I think the Gazette realizes that like you said in the original post, you are waking up and reading the TU stuff online. You're not paying them anything for their work, you're getting it for free. TU gets absolutely nothing out of you. And that's why you get up and read it online.

 

So although the Gazette is not a marquee paper, there will be people (inevitably) that will pay for the Gazette online subscription and NOT have it delivered or buy it at the store. That way, they can wake up and read the paper whenever they want, not have to go out to get it and not have to wait for the paperboy to bring it. Also, when the Gazette first rolled out their site I remember taking the "free tour" and reading about how it was done - it's integrated with their publishing system, so they probably only have to click a few buttons and the paper is put online. Whereas the TU has to employ someone(s) to update their site for them on a regular or semi-regular basis, design web graphics, etc. etc.

 

I think the TU obviously has a greater financial back than the Gazette being that it is owned by Hearst Corporation (one of the largest). They can provide a free website and take the financial loss that comes along with it, because they then charge more for advertising and classified ads (because both get space online and they sell that point to you).

 

But an operation like the Gazette having a free website would not generate them any revenue whatsoever. I guarantee the TU website is a money-loser, and a small paper like Gazette or Record can't afford to drop anymore than they already have.