This El Paso Times article told us that the Times is going to charge for electronic access to their publication.
After reading 25 articles a month from the desktop web site (99 from the mobile facility) we will evidently have to pay to read more.
Breaking news and the home page as well as some other content will not count. The article goes on to indicate that this strategy can help increase the amount that newsprint subscribers pay and that they might be able to keep up to 85% of the existing readers.
Self absorbed
I have a hard time remembering when I found 99 articles (other than breaking news) that I wanted to read in the Times. Many days a large portion of the leading articles in the Times have to do with sports. I guess that they still have sportswriters in their budget.
Privacy
There are a lot of good things to be said about the new electronic methods of accessing information. Privacy is not one of them. I do not want the Times or anyone else being able to keep track of which articles I click on.
I would pay
If the Times did a better job of editing those few articles that they do publish in newsprint I would be willing to pay. It would be nice to be able to believe that the articles were factual or at least accurate.
I’m not talking about their political position. Please don’t try to dignify it by calling it an editorial position. They certainly have the right to pick their political positions and to tell us what they are.
Biased reporting is another matter and the subscribers have the right to vote with their pocketbooks.
Muckraker
elpasospeak 
Full electronic access to the EP Times used to be a bargain — about $10/year. No mas. They’ve increased it to over $60/yr. I was able to rationalize $10/yr but I’m having to think about paying $60+. The print version is out of the question for me. I was willing to put up with poor reporting and writing just to get the other stuff. I’m not sure now.
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This reminds me of an old saying of mine: “You can observe a lot by watching.”
Sports always has been and always will be the primary reason why a large percentage of people bother to even open a newspaper. The preference for sports is also the reason why the number of hours of sports programming on television greatly outweighs the number of hours dedicated to news and current affairs. Sport is big business and one of the top priorities of the society in which we now live. Undoubtedly, politics at all levels has become a blood sport, but most people find today’s politics disgusting and far less entertaining than traditional sports.
Since we’re talking about the death of newspapers, just remember: “Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t go to yours.”
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I use the Times app and usually read the breaking news and Opinion pieces. I will never pay for news when the USA Today and Fox News apps are free and unrestricted.
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This would be an excellent time for The Diario to put a English version on line. I would pay for it. I wouldnt give a dime to the kneelers at the Times.
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Although it is not perfect, you can always use Google Translate to translate the Spanish Version of El Diario into English (or Korean for that matter!). All you have to do is enter the URL from the page you are looking at and Google translates it well enough so you can at least understand the article.
http://translate.google.com
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Since much of the EP Times content consists of wire service and syndicated stories as well as a few local stories (most of which have no real news value), the question becomes how much does a person want to pay for the few legitimate new stories that they do publish? You can go days between meaningful stories, which are “meaningful” primarily because of the topic, not because of any stellar reporting by the Time staff, which still has trouble even spelling or using spell-check.
I stopped subscribing long ago. I occasionally glance online, but it’s not as though I feel I will be missing anything if they limit my access. I can stand at 7-Eleven and read everything I might care about in less than 5 minutes, while getting a cup of coffee for the same price or less than the cost the Times.
Times management is delusional if they think that because people are willing to pay for online access to the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, etc., that they will also pay for the EP Times.
Start the countdown to when they turn off the lights at their new offices. They’re like a ghost, who hasn’t yet figured out that he is already dead.
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