Tulsa World erects paywall

[patric]

To set up an investigative unit that actually covered something other than massage parlors would take a major commitment in dollars and other resources, and Griffin Communications has come the closest to that with their unit in our local markets.

Tulsa TV's investigative reporting (independent of police handouts) essentially ended in the early 80's when Ch.2 decided to follow up on the annual Christmas "dont-drink-and-drive" message by setting up an ambush interview outside Southern Hills during the FOP Christmas party.  When they aired a bunch of LEOs on-camera leaving drunk, police retaliated by telling officers to not grant interviews to any media, not just Ch. 2, as a way of asserting they have their hands on the information spigot.

When they begin encrypting their radio traffic in the next few weeks to shut out the media, it's probably going to hit the fan again.

Now, as far as the World, Im a paid subscriber and I still think the metering is a horrible idea.  Those annoying ads should have been providing them with enough revenue to put their on-line product in front of as many eyes as possible, but by limiting their exposure, they are also limiting that revenue stream.

[nathanm]

This is the TW we're talking about, it's trivial to circumvent their 10 article limit. Whoever it is that does their web site's programming is lazy, stupid, or both. Well, there is another possibility: nobody actually cares to implement effective access controls.

Someone decided that the best way to alert you that you've gone over your article quota was to load the article and then put some crap in front of it to warn you that you'd hit your limit. Of course, any modern browser has a function by which you can delete arbitrary page elements on the fly, and doing so lets you read the article. (and it could be automated with greasemonkey)

However, having seen that they have decided to use shady methods to keep their cookies around on my browser, I'm not terribly interested in giving them my ad views anyway.

Edited to add: It turns out you can find the person's name in one of the javascript files included on the homepage. I'll leave it up to the reader to stalk and/or send hate mail.

[Gonesouth1234]

This is the TW we're talking about, it's trivial to circumvent their 10 article limit. Whoever it is that does their web site's programming is lazy, stupid, or both. Well, there is another possibility: nobody actually cares to implement effective access controls.

Someone decided that the best way to alert you that you've gone over your article quota was to load the article and then put some crap in front of it to warn you that you'd hit your limit. Of course, any modern browser has a function by which you can delete arbitrary page elements on the fly, and doing so lets you read the article. (and it could be automated with greasemonkey)

However, having seen that they have decided to use shady methods to keep their cookies around on my browser, I'm not terribly interested in giving them my ad views anyway.

Edited to add: It turns out you can find the person's name in one of the javascript files included on the homepage. I'll leave it up to the reader to stalk and/or send hate mail.

     After years of using the website, and being a some what loyal reader and customer of the printed product, although from time to time having vehemently disagreed with their editorial opinions, it has come to a point that I feel they are no longer involved enough in the community to provide unbiased journalism  to the unwashed, which I am a loyal member of.  As one forum member said, "..the viewpoint of the few, not the many."
     There are many voices in any political forum, some just making noise, some with a valid viewpoint, and a few that really want the outcome of the forum and discussion to be goals that are attainable, with the outcome of the forum being a better city. This is called discussion, or politics, which is compromise, which should lead to some action, hopefully, progress and growth for a city, or at least the solution to one specific problem.
    IMHO, the World is still participating in the forum, but the bias has filtered down to all levels of the operation; and the daily reporting has become a victim of that.
   That news organizations predominantly follow the viewpoint of ownership and upper management is a historical fact, but the ones that can keep editorial separate from reporting the facts, generally are the ones that will survive.
   RIP, Tulsa World.
   
   

[Townsend]

One of three major US papers that increased market penetration last year.

[sgrizzle]

One of three major US papers that increased market penetration last year.

I'm sure that is due to online numbers, not print. Online is likely only up because it's free and they have been putting it on mobile devices.

[Townsend]

I'm sure that is due to online numbers, not print. Online is likely only up because it's free and they have been putting it on mobile devices.

Absolutely sure?  They may know magics.

[Gaspar]

Online news sources that rely on advertising succeed, because they can be freely linked to and referenced from outside of their walls.

Those who choose subscription based income, lose the casual reader, and a significant amount of advertising revenue generated through click-through tracking.

This is a very poor business decision based on a very old-fashioned world-view.

[patric]

Online news sources that rely on advertising succeed, because they can be freely linked to and referenced from outside of their walls.
Those who choose subscription based income, lose the casual reader, and a significant amount of advertising revenue generated through click-through tracking.

This is a very poor business decision based on a very old-fashioned world-view.

It was a long road coming.
"The issue is a sensitive one to newspapers and the newspaper industry. In recent years, several large daily newspapers have admitted to falsifying circulation figures and paid large settlements to advertisers as a result." http://www.tulsanow.org/forum/index.php?topic=12465.195

[Conan71]

I can't begrudge the newspaper needing a way to ensure they can stay afloat in an era when print is dying a slow death in an information world which is amazingly fast.  That said, there's too many other places to get breaking news related to Tulsa (the four network affiliates are one place) so I won't miss it.

We get a hard copy here at work because the boss likes to browse it, so I can always read it for free.  I've not had a personal subscription to the World in at least 10 years.  It's really not that relevant to me.

[ZYX]

As Nathan said, whoever designed their website was lazy and/or cheap. Just for fun I decided to see if the whole ten page limit thing works. It doesn't. It gave me that little box about ten times, and has now resorted to letting me view every article I click on. Ha! $14.99 subscription. Yeah right.

[patric]

However, having seen that they have decided to use shady methods to keep their cookies around on my browser, I'm not terribly interested in giving them my ad views anyway.

Apparently they do hide cookies in places your browser isnt aware, such as your Flash player:
http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager07.html

[TheArtist]

  I have stopped reading them all together and now use the other local news sources more, so no big deal.  Plus my major, world news sources are free like the BBC and Science Daily so I get plenty of info to enjoy browsing.

[nathanm]

Apparently they do hide cookies in places your browser isnt aware, such as your Flash player:
http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager07.html

That and your standard browser cookies are 2 of the 7 or 8. They also use HTML5 local storage, Silverlight, and a some others. They use evercookie which, like annoying spyware, replaces all of its elements if you don't manage to zap them all at the same time.

And given its use of Flash and Silverlight "cookies", it keeps things around even if you switch browsers.

[TurismoDreamin]

For the past several days, although I am not a subscriber, I have been able to access the Tulsa World website without the subcription pop-up. When they made it subscription service only, I checked in from time to time to see what headlines were up and to read some of the comments which usually followed a quick Google search for other free news sources. Now, I can check any articles and as many articles as I want without the pop-up prompting me to subscribe. Is anyone else experiencing this?

[Conan71]

For the past several days, although I am not a subscriber, I have been able to access the Tulsa World website without the subcription pop-up. When they made it subscription service only, I checked in from time to time to see what headlines were up and to read some of the comments which usually followed a quick Google search for other free news sources. Now, I can check any articles and as many articles as I want without the pop-up prompting me to subscribe. Is anyone else experiencing this?

I think you get ten page views a month then you get the pop up.  I'm still getting the pop up.