Is the subscription system killing off internet and publishing interest?

[megilleland]

As you now have to pay for most things in life it comes as no surprise that the Internet is now a cash cow. Companies which once put information and news into the public domain to attract business from potential clients now expect you to pay up front to tell you they can help you. I have always said that before the internet if you were interested in something, you went out of your way to specifically find out more information or purchase the item. Now the marketing pattern has evolved in that these businesses now throw everything at you and you have to waste more time sifting through a tsunami of irrelevant matter which you have no interest in. The pressure to take out subscriptions and register means that we now have to be particularly discerning onto what we log on to. Having gone to so many sites with articles masked out and increased pop up ads, I now only bookmark about half a dozen sites and these will most probably be censored in the coming year as these corporations working with the government regulators/agencies only allow sites to promote their own narratives. It won't be long before we will watching sponsors' programmes with possibly some news or entertainment thrown in. Everything will be presented by celebrities, with political leanings, to inform us what is proper and correct - even the BBC is showing a lack of impartiality through its news reporters and commentators.

The BBC is holding interviews for a new Director General, supposedly this coming month, with four applicants on the interview list. I predict that one applicant looks highly likely to get the job - Will Lewis, the outgoing chief executive of the publisher of the Wall Street Journal. In 2010, following his time at the Telegraph, Mr Lewis became group general manager of News Group Newspapers (NGN), the publishers of the News of the World and the Sun, and was there at the height of the phone hacking scandal. Today he is accused of aiding the concealment and destruction of millions of emails relating to phone hacking at the News of the World and the Sun. It is ironic that News Group newspapers is owned by Rupert Murdoch who has shown interest in "taking over" the BBC and Mr Lewis could be the man to help achieve his. Ironically the government also has a say in who can be appointed to the BBC. So maybe we will be subscribing for individual programmes authorised by our government.

Mr Lewis, while editor of The Daily Telegraph, did expose the Expenses Scandal in 2009 when a person unknown in a government office copies an entire terabyte of data from a classified computer to a portable hard drive, which is then whisked away from under the noses of colleagues and security alike and ­spirited out of Westminster. That hard drive contains revelatory material – all the expense claims made by 646 members of parliament over the last five years. Two million documents in all, including copies of expense claim forms, handwritten comments scrawled in margins, even attached sticky notes. 

That the person who gave the files to The Daily Telegraph in 2009 had connections with Hereford shows that there are people who are willing to expose a system, rotten to the core and able to expose the corruption. Whether they do it for purely moral/ethical reasons or for personal gain is not important. In the future we are less likely to get real news and the truth behind government and corporations financial motives.

So it does look true that no news is good news. 

[Mick]

38 minutes ago, megilleland said:

As you now have to pay for most things in life it comes as no surprise that the Internet is now a cash cow. Companies which once put information and news into the public domain to attract business from potential clients now expect you to pay up front to tell you they can help you. I have always said that before the internet if you were interested in something, you went out of your way to specifically find out more information or purchase the item. Now the marketing pattern has evolved in that these businesses now throw everything at you and you have to waste more time sifting through a tsunami of irrelevant matter which you have no interest in. The pressure to take out subscriptions and register means that we now have to be particularly discerning onto what we log on to. Having gone to so many sites with articles masked out and increased pop up ads, I now only bookmark about half a dozen sites and these will most probably be censored in the coming year as these corporations working with the government regulators/agencies only allow sites to promote their own narratives. It won't be long before we will watching sponsors' programmes with possibly some news or entertainment thrown in. Everything will be presented by celebrities, with political leanings, to inform us what is proper and correct - even the BBC is showing a lack of impartiality through its news reporters and commentators.

The BBC is holding interviews for a new Director General, supposedly this coming month, with four applicants on the interview list. I predict that one applicant looks highly likely to get the job - Will Lewis, the outgoing chief executive of the publisher of the Wall Street Journal. In 2010, following his time at the Telegraph, Mr Lewis became group general manager of News Group Newspapers (NGN), the publishers of the News of the World and the Sun, and was there at the height of the phone hacking scandal. Today he is accused of aiding the concealment and destruction of millions of emails relating to phone hacking at the News of the World and the Sun. It is ironic that News Group newspapers is owned by Rupert Murdoch who has shown interest in "taking over" the BBC and Mr Lewis could be the man to help achieve his. Ironically the government also has a say in who can be appointed to the BBC. So maybe we will be subscribing for individual programmes authorised by our government.

Mr Lewis, while editor of The Daily Telegraph, did expose the Expenses Scandal in 2009 when a person unknown in a government office copies an entire terabyte of data from a classified computer to a portable hard drive, which is then whisked away from under the noses of colleagues and security alike and ­spirited out of Westminster. That hard drive contains revelatory material – all the expense claims made by 646 members of parliament over the last five years. Two million documents in all, including copies of expense claim forms, handwritten comments scrawled in margins, even attached sticky notes. 

That the person who gave the files to The Daily Telegraph in 2009 had connections with Hereford shows that there are people who are willing to expose a system, rotten to the core and able to expose the corruption. Whether they do it for purely moral/ethical reasons or for personal gain is not important. In the future we are less likely to get real news and the truth behind government and corporations financial motives.

So it does look true that no news is good news. 

The Hereford Times have got a subscription service read this article.

I will not be paying any subscription for news when it is free and in the public domain. Their whole website if FULL of annoying pop ups and adverts and stupid surveys, it's all over the place, I find it very difficult;t to even respond to their stories, hence why I prefer to have my discussions here. 

[megilleland]

Agree. Colin can do quite a public service with his Local news from Hereford Voice postings. I can remember the early days of Hereford Voice when is was not unusual for many people to discuss issues affecting the county and their neighbourhood - I wonder where they have all gone?

[twowheelsgood]

I suspect many saw that moaning on forums was ultimately futile - it hasn't changed the Council, for instance, they are still staggeringly inefficient and incompetent. I foolishly thought this latest bunch would be better than the last bunch, but sadly not.