The Times paywalls go up...

[okgo]

To be fair the actual deal isn't that bad, if you subscribe to any other quality paper then you'd be paying north of 400 to get it every day...difference being with this that you get a free tablet I guess... Which does appear a little desperate, but they've obviously done some backhander to get a load of stock of them and its costing them a few pages in the main paper I would guess.

[0000]

I can haz £.

[RSoovy4]

okgo said:

To be fair the actual deal isn't that bad, if you subscribe to any other quality paper then you'd be paying north of 400 to get it every day...difference being with this that you get a free tablet I guess... Which does appear a little desperate, but they've obviously done some backhander to get a load of stock of them and its costing them a few pages in the main paper I would guess.

It reminds me of the Jack Dee routine about the fudge fairy at the Craft Fair. 2 to get in!

"Two quid? Two quid? I can go to f kcing Harrods. For nothing!"

[Rude-boy]

RSoovy4 said:

It reminds me of the Jack Dee routine about the fudge fairy at the Craft Fair. 2 to get in!

"Two quid? Two quid? I can go to f kcing Harrods. For nothing!"

Noted but to be fair here we are being charged 2 to get into Harrods yet can get into the craft fair for free. That is so long as you dont mind a side bar that looks like the front of Closer to Heat and stories that are to journalistic integrity what Genghis Kahn was to International Diplomacy.

[RSoovy4]

Rude-boy said:

RSoovy4 said:

It reminds me of the Jack Dee routine about the fudge fairy at the Craft Fair. 2 to get in!

"Two quid? Two quid? I can go to f kcing Harrods. For nothing!"

Noted but to be fair here we are being charged 2 to get into Harrods yet can get into the craft fair for free. That is so long as you dont mind a side bar that looks like the front of Closer to Heat and stories that are to journalistic integrity what Genghis Kahn was to International Diplomacy.

Try Google News, it takes content from all over the world.

I find that English speaking foreign reporting is very good. Only in the UK is journalism so dumbed down.

[Rude-boy]

RSoovy4 said:

Try Google News, it takes content from all over the world.

Will give it a go. Can't possibly be worse than Yahoo News...

[okgo]

It is just a content scraper, plenty out there for tablet too, Flipboard app does that, and does it well. OR of course you can use one of the sites that are still free (if there are any!)

[RSoovy4]

okgo said:

It is just a content scraper, plenty out there for tablet too, Flipboard app does that, and does it well. OR of course you can use one of the sites that are still free (if there are any!)

I can't quite believe I am saying this, but the Grauniad is good.

[okgo]

RSoovy4 said:

I can't quite believe I am saying this, but the Grauniad is good.

Yes, its doing very well indeed online, and each time one of the other big players does something like a paywall for online content I would imagine they rub their hands.

[Newc]

RSoovy4 said:

I can't quite believe I am saying this, but the Grauniad is good.

[RDMcG]

Most of them allow a bit if free content. If you bookmark enough you can get reasonable coverage. The TImes simply raised the drawbridge, and then stopped a day rate which I occasionally used. Never went back. They deserve their fate.

[Justin Cyder]

TBH anyone who persisted with The Times from the day after Murdoch sacked Harold Evans has been wasting their time imo.

[MX7]

Justin Cyder said:

TBH anyone who persisted with The Times from the day after Murdoch sacked Harold Evans has been wasting their time imo.

I'm surprised that you'd know what The Times was like 30+ years ago.

[Justin Cyder]

Well then, permit me to retortzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz



No sorry, too bored to respond.

[MX7]

Justin Cyder said:

Well then, permit me to retortzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz



No sorry, too bored to respond.

With a reply like that, you leave me in no doubt that you don't.

[Justin Cyder]

You're still not over the pasting you took in the Christopher Jeffries thread are you dear?

I'm amused by the grudge bearing though.

[MX7]

Justin Cyder said:

You're still not over the pasting you took in the Christopher Jeffries thread are you dear?

I'm amused by the grudge bearing though.

No idea what you're talking about.

So do you remember the Times from 30 years ago?

[BlackLabel]

It seems they made the correct decision.

guardian said:

Times Newspapers (TNL) has posted a £1.7m operating profit for the year ended 30 June 2014, its first profitable year since 2001.

It marks a considerable turn-around by the publisher of the Times and Sunday Times given that it recorded a loss in 2013 of nearly £6m and five years ago, in the year prior to the erection of its paywall, was showing a loss of more than £70m.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/dec/02/times-newspapers-posts-17m-profit-first-in-13-years

Edited by BlackLabel on Tuesday 2nd December 14:16

[okgo]

Meanwhile the Guardian are reversing their loss at a startling rate, far more than the times from those figures.... All while keeping everything open.

And as for 70m loss the year before paywall that will be creative accounting and spin and have very little to do with the paywall.

[RDMcG]

Fair enough if it works for them. Never returned after they made impossible to pay by the day.