NWH overboard on archive fees

The Northwest Herald is heading down a slippery slope - fast.

Articles are online at www.nwherald.com when they first appear in the print edition, and they quickly disappear into the archives. The paper's policy appears to be to send them into hiding after only one week.

Then, if you want to read the full article, you get to cough up $2.95 to read it (and, presumably, to print it). They offer bulk rates for heavy users; e.g., you could just ante up $1,995 and get to pull up to 1,000 articles in a 12-month period. OK, stop laughing.

Of course, another choice is to part with $13.27/month and have the morning paper delivered right to your door each and every day. For $159.24/year you could have stacks of newspapers in your garage or dining room. A little hard to find the article you want, but you'd save $1,800+. And you'd help the economy by keeping the paperboy (errrr, ...man/woman?) employed. But, then, you'd be harming the environment because of the vehicle emissions...

As thin as the paper is a couple of times a week, I must admit that I am beginning to wonder about the wisdom of continuing my subscription. If I drop it, though, they might pull the Print functionality off the website. Dare I even mention that? But then I'd miss the advertising and the coupons, which I like. Oh, yes, and the four comic strips I read.