So Farewell Daily Telegraph...

[Gromit]

I have been reading you since I was nine. 40 years, but now you are going behind a paywall (like the Times did).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21946916

Seriously, I will not be subscribing.

Would you Daily Mail (or other publication) readers subscribe if it went behind a paywall?

[Everhelpful]

Not a remote chance,only Paper I get is "The Daily Mirror" which,at the moment,is Free on my Ipad.

[rojash]

I used to read the New York Times, but stopped as soon as they started charging. I look at the Mail on line for a bit of a laff, and to look for wind-ups, so definitely wouldn't pay for that. I suppose most would regard me as a Guardianista, but I don't think I'd pay for that either. There's always the good old Beeb.

[VHG]

With all newspaper sales falling, their revenue stream is dropping.

They cant afford to keep paying expensive journalists to write their papers if they are going to give the content away for free.

Even Murdoch said there may not be such as thing as printed newspapers in 20 years time, and if there are they will have very small circulations.

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/26/rupert-murdoch-on-the-future-of-news/

More and more magazines are going to "internet only" and no printed version (Newsweek for example)

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/10/21/tina-brown-newsweek-s-all-digital-future.html

[joggerjayne]

You can still buy it at our local corner shop.

[Mosaic]

Thing is, I stopped buying papers at all a few years ago. First the Sundays annoyed me. The Guardian jobs pages got easier to get online. The Wingeypendant annoyed me. I never read the sports, business or opinion pages of any of them. The fashion pages were just ludicrous. Then there was the sheer cost. The local paper has gone from a stately northern broadsheet to an advertising tabloid written by trainee journo's who do not know anything about the area and can't wait to leave. I'm quite content with news I can get online and on the radio / TV, and I will not be paying any of them for the privilege of annoying me.

[VHG]

>>>You can still buy it at our local corner shop.

Yes but the sales of all newspapers are falling. And very few young people buy newspaper and they get their news from the internet or TV and radio.

So sales of all newspaers will continue to drop, and you may see newspapers merging, with less titles on the news stand.

Some may go to a weekly edition, others may only publish on the weekend and so on.

So while you can indeed buy the Telegraph (and other papers) at the corner shop how much longer will that continue - 5 years, 10 years ?????

[emmie]

at the rate of change in communication we have experienced there is no reason to think that all papers won't go this way, the quickest medium for information now is the internet, instantaneous and without much cost in real terms. I have almost given up reading the papers, most news comes via radio, tv, internet...

[Buenchico]

Here's the UK's biggest online-only newspaper (derived from the original US version):
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/
It's well worth trying.

[joggerjayne]

I will continue to buy a news paper made from ... err, paper.

(so long as there are rain forests left to turn into copies of The Guardian)

[ladybirder]

I have a Waitrose Loyalty Card and can have the DT free from Mon - Fri. How good is that:-)

[mazie]

I buy my papers from the shop every morning, so I really don't understand the question. The feel of a paper, is really special. How do you do the crosswords?

[joggerjayne]

// I have a Waitrose Loyalty Card //

#ThatIsJustSOHove

Alol

[ladybirder]

Hi Jayne:-))

[DTCwordfan]

I agree with you mazie, though the internet papers are good to look at for news during the day or to find a c and p for here on AB

[joggerjayne]

Hi, LB x

I think the best I could hope for is a ...

Newsagent On East Street Loyalty Card

lol

[Gromit]

Unfortunately, the printed paper is generally about 24 hours late with the news.
The online version is spot on up to date, and you don't have to suffer the repetativeness of 24 news tv channels.

Fortunately, I do get my news from multiple sources. I will be interested to see what the Daily Mail do. Their site is the most successful in the world yet is free. Can that, will that continue?

[emmie]

i didn't know the DM online was free, i think you still have to pay if you want to do the crosswords on line...

[modeller]

Never mind Gromit you have still got your Morning Star .

[sp1814]

em10

The Daily Mail has an app which you pay for. Not sure how much, but it's very cheap (according to a colleague at work) and you can update it by clicking on a 'refresh' button whenever you want.

Personally, I've not only stopped buying papers, but also magazines. All the mags I enjoy reading have iPad versions which are preferable to their paper siblings (interactive content, embedded videos etc).

Would I pay for a newspaper website that was behind a firewall? No...but I do have the Whingeypendent iPad app, and Huffington is pretty awesome (it too has an iPad app).

In fact, now I think of it - I can't remember when I last bought an actual newspaper. It seems quite old fashioned...like smoking on aeroplanes, or rickets.

[jno]

I would pay to read the Guardian online, as I have paid for the printed version. (In fact I think they're mad not to have one, as their website loses money hand over fist.) I suppose I look at the Telegraph website less than 20 times a month, so I could still do that free; I do this already with the Financial Times.

The paywall appears to have helped the Times - I don't think they've released proper figures, but it was estimated that they lost 90% of their online readers by imposing it. As the calculation was always that a paying reader is worth 10 who don't pay (at least), that would be seen as a win.

The danger is loss of authority. People used to quote what the Times said about a given situation. Now they don't. It's fallen out of the national conversation. The Telegraph is taking the same risk.