#7

(See DDN Fail #1, #2, #3, #4, #5 and #6)

A fun new feature of the Dayton Daily News is their new pay wall. Now when you click on certain stories, such as one featured on today’s front page, “ODOT: 3C trains could go 110 mph,” you’ll see only the first couple paragraphs of the story, followed by an “And there’s more to the story…” blurb trying to entice you to subscribe either to the printed edition of the paper or to their new .

The Dayton Daily News isn’t alone in wanting to charge online visitors for content. Google “London Times paywall,” and you can see that Rupert Murdoch, owner of the The Times of London, also wants online readers to pay to read his newspapers’ content. In those same stories about The Times’ paywall you’ll also see that The Times’ readership has fallen by as much as 90%.

A challenge facing the Dayton Daily News is that their pre-paywall audience probably wasn’t anywhere near as large as that of The Times.

Another challenge facing the Dayton Daily News is that much of what they publish can be gotten elsewhere for free. For example, the “ODOT: 3C trains could go 110 mph” article starts with the paragraph:

Ohio’s transportation director asserted Tuesday, Aug. 31, that passenger trains eventually will reach speeds of 110 mph across the state, even as freight railroads that will share the tracks effectively responded: “Not so fast.”

Guess where else you can find an article starting with the exact same paragraph? If you don’t know, Google is your friend. Google the above paragraph, and the number one result is not the Dayton Daily News article but rather another article with the exact same opening paragraph, available free to read online at The Columbus Dispatch.

If the Dayton Daily News is going to post basically the same press release that every other newspaper uses, why should anyone bother to pay the Dayton Daily News for news?

Update: Other stories the Dayton Daily News wants you to pay to read on their site that you can get for free elsewhere:

“Starbucks Corp. is set to debut its latest caffeinated concoction — flavored instant coffee.”
• Dayton Daily News paywalled version
• Free version with same opening sentence on 10news.com

“As of June 30, 21.9 percent of workers with 401(k) plans had loans outstanding, up from 19.3 percent in 2008, according to Fidelity Investments.”
• Dayton Daily News paywalled version
• Free version with same stats on tricityherald.com

“Democrats unlikely to repeal tax cuts for the rich”
• Dayton Daily News paywalled version
• Free version with same headline and sentences from McClatchy Newspapers

“N.C. Central University Chancellor Charlie Nelms thinks eye-catching outfits—whether risque or just-plain sloppy—are obstacles to learning.”
• Dayton Daily News paywalled version
• Same McClatchy Newspapers article available for free on KansasCity.com