So the Herald is supposedly going behind a paywall starting December 18th. Regular readers know that I rely on Herald content for The Cooler each weekday morning. In addition, I'll occasionally post a Jim Morin cartoon or comment on a excerpt from a story.
Like I did with the Sun-Sentinel after it erected its paywall, I'll stop linking to the Herald on December 18th. I'll still post a Morin cartoon if I like it, but regular Herald content will no longer be used at SFDB. Two reasons: 1) I don't plan on subscribing and, 2) neither do many of my readers. Why would I like to an article they can't access?
Earlier this week, a Sun-Sentinel employee emailed me and asked why I had linked to a story that appeared at WPLG when the Sun-Sentinel had carried the same story a few days earlier. In response I would say that I haven't read the Sun-Sentinel since they started their paywall (with the exception of checking out Chan Lowe's cartoons) so I didn't even know the Sun-Sentinel had carried it. Even if I had noticed it, why link to it when it's behind a paywall?
The employee went on to claim that my policy of "boycotting" paywalled newspapers only "rewards those who often benefit by pilfering from others." I don't consider myself boycotting the Sun-Sentinel and the Herald as much as I am making a choice not to spend money for news I can obtain elsewhere. I'm a consumer, after all. If that benefits other news sources then so be it. Perhaps the Herald, Sun-Sentinel and other newspapers should consider that very relevant point before erecting paywalls. They made their choice and I'm making mine, right?
I'm thinking that, as a result, I'll be including more content from the Huffington Post and local TV station websites. I'll miss the Herald's letters to the editor and Leonard Pitts but outside of that, everything else that is in the Herald I can get somewhere else.
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