Newspapers used to have it good.  They were getting paid on both ends.  They'd charge you for the paper and they'd charge the advertisers to be in the paper. This doesn't work any longer.

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If you pop over to the A.J. site on a regular basis, you'll find that after you "click" a certain amount of stories, you get locked out. At that point you get a message trying to sell you a "premium" membership so you can see the rest.  That's the point where I go to another media outlet and get the information elsewhere.  Guess who loses?  The A.J.s advertisers.  They not only drove me off the site and I'm not seeing that days adds, I've now had it happen enough that I don't go back.

The A.J. HAD an advantage.  We were used to it. We accepted them as the Lubbock "news source" (regardless of the quality of the product).  Now, with these feeble attempts at online subscriptions they are training us to look elsewhere.

On the other end, the A.J. tries to inflate subscription numbers by having folks (a lot of them shady) sell the paper from intersections.  Personally, I REALLY don't like these folks trying to stare me down in hopes of selling the paper.  This weekend a paper seller actually told a friend of mine "Thanks Ni@@a!" after he bought a paper.  Quality folks indeed!

The answer is simple A.J.  Quality reporting and quality sponsors.  Or maybe the option of "no ads" if people want to subscribe that way.  But, as long as you try to have it both ways, you're well on your way to extinction.

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