A Free Press Isn’t Free

Do you subscribe to your local newspaper?

I’m ashamed to admit that I didn’t, until the Muncie Star Press began charging for online access a few weeks ago.  I read the paper every day and I never paid for it.  I was a freeloader.

We’ve become so used to free, but a free press isn’t free. Reporters, photographers, editors, and printers need paid.  They have families and mortgages and electric bills.

I complained when I heard the This American Life Episode that revealed the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers had outsourced their hyper-local content to a company using  computer programs and Filipinos to write stories.  But who could blame them with freeloaders like me?

I acknowledge that all of my complaining about thinner papers and shorter stories and bad writing in all of sorts of online and in print publications was hypocritical.  Unless we pay for a free press, stories will only get shorter, papers will get thinner, and writing will get worser (see, you are reading a free article right now!).

So kudos to the Star Press for charging.  For $12 per month, I get papers on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and online access every day.  I’ve subscribed to the New York Times online since they began requiring it.  That means I pay $27 per month for my local paper and the paper of record. Not bad.

BUT SOME PEOPLE CAN’T AFFORD THE PAPER

While I should pay for the paper, there are some in my community who can’t afford $12 per month.  Once there is a pay wall in place, where will they get their local news?  This does concern me.  And I’m sure many a paper has struggled with this decision. Local news shouldn’t be restricted to those who can only afford it.  I hope that papers who charge for online access find a solution to this dilemma.  Maybe they could have a scholarship program for people living in poverty and for students.

I’ll end with the same question I began with: Do you subscribe to your local newspaper?