OPINION: In defence of paying for a newspaper

COLUMNIST Andrew Gale recalls a time when the only way you could access news was by paying for it.

JUST $1 A WEEK: Readers are encouraged to take advantage of the current subscription offer.

I really feel I need to write about people whinging about paying for online newspaper content. I will admit though that I was a little reluctant to write about this topic.

For 2 reasons mostly.

1. A lot of my friends will disagree and it may cause a bit of friction the next time we meet.

2. It might look a bit like I’m sucking up to the bosses at this newspaper.

I gave it a bit of thought and then threw caution to the wind and decided to do it anyway because —

1. I love a good “free and frank” discussion!

2. Sucking up to the boss never did anyone any harm.

You only have to follow the stories on the Warwick Daily News Facebook page to see people complaining. If you don’t follow the online world, plenty of people don’t, I’ll explain a little bit.

Every day, the Daily News, and almost every other media outlet, print or otherwise, in the world, will post news stories online. Generally, they are stories that will be published in the next day’s print edition but sometimes they are breaking or live stories.

Even this column makes it online sometimes! (That usually means a slow news day.)

Some stories are free to access and some have subscriber content. It really depends on the type of media outlet and the business model that they use.

The traditional “free” media, such as free-to-air television, and the non-daily newspapers tend to be free. Whereas traditional “daily” newspapers, such as The Courier Mail, The Warwick Daily News, The Australian, The Toowoomba Chronical and so on, require a subscription to be able to access and read the stories.

Anyway, some people put on a turn “online” when they find out that they have to pay for a story.

I can see why they do that to a certain extent, especially if they access other news online for free, but if an outlet chooses a business model that requires a subscription, such as the aforementioned daily papers, that’s their choice, so either pay up, or don’t read it.

As long as I care to remember, and for decades and decades before that, well before the internet was even thought of, newspapers were never free. You had to walk into the newsagent and fork out a few coins for them or pay a bill every week to get the thing chucked over your fence. I even used to pay a guy at the traffic lights on my way to work for the daily paper.

You paid for the privilege of having full access to that paper, even if all you did was use it to start the fire, line the budgie cage with it or cut it up into little squares that got pushed over a nail on the wall of a tiny shed at the back of the garden.

I’m happy to pay my few bucks a week to get access to the newspapers I like. I read them on my phone, computer or tablet. I even write for one and I don’t mind paying!

Do your little bit to keep these papers going. If you’re smart you might even take advantage of the offers that pop up. I think it’s a dollar a week at the moment. Go on, take the chains off your pockets and don’t be such a tightwad!

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