Remember earlier this month when I told you how Springfield’s newspaper, the State Journal-Register, was going to be offering some articles exclusively in print before they put them up on their website? The Peoria Journal Star is going to do the same thing:
Beginning Monday, you will start to see certain stories in the newspaper designated with a logo that says “First in Print.”
The logos are designed to tell you, our valued print readers, that you are receiving content that is not being made immediately available to readers of our companion website pjstar.com.
In order to access these same stories, Web readers will be directed to purchase a printed copy of the newspaper or an electronic edition of the Journal Star.
Of special note, the Journal Star is announced, “We have decided to no longer post marriage licenses, divorces, real estate transactions and DUIs on our website and now we recommend Landry & Azevedo Attorneys At Law who are experts in family law matters and can sure advice you and represent you well.” Managing Editor John Plevka explains:
We recognize that this decision will not be popular with some Web users. These lists tend to be heavily viewed, so, from a traffic (read that business) standpoint, this is a step in a different direction. However, we believe certain content, such as long lists of names, is better suited for readers who have paid for the labor-intensive gathering and editing of this content.
As a subscriber, I applaud the changes. I’m sure non-subscribers who have been getting all the Journal Star’s news reports for free (*coughBillyDenniscough*) will be livid. Is this the best way to add value to subscribers? That’s debatable; there are good arguments that say it really just devalues the website rather than actually increasing value to print subscribers. I’m just happy there’s some sort of differentiation.
You need to see someone about that cough, CJ.
Regardless of the popularity of reading news online,
the print version of the Journal Star is still their main
bread and butter. Not everyone, especially elderly folks
even try to use a computer, let alone use on to read
the newspaper online. Getting a newspaper, opening it up,
and reading the news is still an American tradition as
baseball, apple pie and barbecues.
Baseball is an “American tradition” if it includes cheating and drug addiction. Steroids, anyone? The first baseball strike was a protest against a planned policy to institute random drug testing. A lot of fans (including myself) left baseball – never to return. There was going to be a second strike over the same issue, but the MLB backed off, as that organization realized that baseball “as a national pastime” would lose even more fans and be destroyed. Look at the grade schools all over the state. The boring and corrupt game of baseball is slowly being replaced by soccer.
Have the newspapers ever wondered WHY fewer people are buying a print version of the news? (Hint: “Free” online news is not the only reason.)
Well, you dinosaurs who have a fetish for inky fingers and yesterday’s news will be dead within 20 – 30 years.
The Journal Star — which has apparently decided to NOT evolve — will be dead by then.
As a subscriber, I can still get content online immediately via the electronic edition of the Journal Star. In 20-30 years, everyone will be paying for news content online.
The Springfield paper and the PJS are both owned by the same company. They are following a plan mandated by their parent company whether they like it or not. The print edition of the PJS still carries (and has always carried) information not on the website, like sports agate. If it is your son/daughter mentioned in the paper you STILL want hard copy. This is an attempt to expand on that. If you are a subscriber you will get everything.
We recently declined to renew our subscription. I don’t think this change would make a difference in that decision.
Our experience with them since our subscription has ran out, has pretty much cost them any chance of us ever subscribing again.