Letter to readers: Why should you pay?

I encountered an interesting conversation on one of our Facebook groups the other day and couldn't resist jumping into the fray.

I find myself doing this more often these days, because I feel the message is an important one and something too many people fail to understand.

The conversation was about a news story we had published online — not about the story's contents but about their ability to see it.

A couple people complained they couldn't read the story about a police action and they wanted someone else in the group to tell them what was going on.

The only reason those folks couldn't read the story is because they'd already read their limit of Daily Herald stories for free online and when faced with the question of purchasing a digital subscription or waiting a period of time until they could read more for free, they decided to wait until the clock reset.

Someone asked why she should have to pay for information about her town.

My response: Somehow, we have to pay our reporters. photographers and editors and buy the equipment it takes to produce the news.

And that's the uncomfortable truth.

For a very long time in the early days of the internet, the Daily Herald and most other newspapers with an online presence gave away the milk for free. We didn't understand the impact it would have on the rest of our business.

When it became evident that people were eschewing a paid print subscription for free access to anything we published online, newspapers began tinkering with paywalls to stem the bleeding.

Over the years, that paywall has tightened. Today you get a couple free stories before you're asked to sign up for a digital subscription.

Think of your trip to Costco on a weekend. You can get a sample of a variety of products. Vendors do this with the hope that once they've whetted your appetite you'll buy a box of whatever it was that tasted so good.

You'd never dream of simply walking out of the store with that box of stuff without paying for it, would you?

You'd never think of walking out of a store without paying for a printed newspaper, either.

Why should it be different for online access to a newspaper website?

In the interest of transparency, we invite you to sample our wares to help you develop a need for what we do. I say that with no shame. We're not selling heroin here, after all.

We're arming you with valuable information about your world, whether it be things to do in town or how various levels of government are spending the money you give them each year.

We know our coverage has value, because some people choose to pay for it and others try to find ways not to pay for it while using it anyway.

Someone in the Facebook conversation said that because the story was about a police matter that it was a matter of public safety and should be made free to everyone.

I wonder whether it ever occurred to that person that through her property taxes or rent she was paying the salaries of police officers and any other public servant who showed up at the scene.

All of our reporters photographers, editors, clerks, advertising reps, production staffers, circulation people and human resources people have bills to pay and mouths to feed.

These are the jobs they've chosen to do for our company. Without readers paying for the work we all do together, there would be no newspaper.

Bear that in mind the next time you hit the paywall. Speech is free, but reporting the news costs money.

And that's why we ask you to pay.