Should NWH allow "any" free reading?

Ever try to read an article on the Northwest Herald website (www.nwherald.com), if you aren't a paying subscriber?

Try it.

Pretty frustrating; right?

Now, the NWH is a business, and it can certainly charge for its product. But it fails to understand or appreciate how its policy infuriates potential subscribers. When an occasional reader hits that site and immediately is confronted with a pay-or-else screen, all it really does is drive that reader further away from any consideration of subscribing.

Aside from the fact that, now, almost every newspaper in the country demands that you pay to read, no consideration is given to occasional readers. I am certainly not going to pay $9.95/month to read ten newspapers in a month!

Could the Northwest Herald charge a daily fee? Could it give an occasional reader 10 clicks free in a month without killing its bottom line?

All it is doing is driving another nail in its coffin. If, instead, it provided quality news, written to attract and retain readers, and if it offered a more reasonable monthly fee of, say, $3.95, would readership - and income - quickly increase?

Its current policy irritates readers - not a good thing for a business...