Starting yesterday, the Lee chain of newspapers in Montana (the Missoulian, Ravalli Republic, Billings Gazette, Helena “Independent” Record, and Montana Standard) will let you read for free two news stories every three days. After that, you’ll need your credit card. The cost? Two bucks a month for print subscribers, five for digital freeloaders.
You can still view all ads for free. No surprise there.
Why the move to what the Missoulian calls a metered model? Money. And, perhaps, panic. Lee Enterprises, once a financially healthy organization, is scrambling frantically to avoid bankruptcy. In that situation, every little bit helps, and if you can sell bytes for a few bucks, the bean counters turn on the click meter. It’s understandable.
But it’s not without untoward societal consequences. It will shrink my information universe and that of many Montanans.
When I moved to Kalispell from Portland, OR, in 1976, my information world became frustratingly small: a handful of newspapers at the county library, a few local radio and television stations, a couple of newspapers and news magazine that I could afford. The internet returned me to the information mainstream, enlarged my universe, helped me become better informed. What I could view online was limited by my clock, not my pocketbook.
Lee’s meter changes that. Now my pocketbook, which is not as deep as it was once, and certainly not as deep as the pocketbooks of the Lee executives who mismanaged their company, significantly constrains what I can learn about Montana.
Five bucks a month may not sound like much, especially to newspaper executives with six-figure annual incomes, but it begins to add up. I try to check the Gazette, the IR, and the Missoulian every day. I don’t subscribe to the print edition of any of these newspapers, so it would cost me $180 per year just to read two or three stories a day in each paper. At this point, I can’t afford it.
Neither can the ButtonValley Bugle, one of Montana’s best blogs:
Would you pay $60 a year to the Montana Standard to find out “Butte Kiwanis Sunshine Camp to Celebrate 125,000th Free Meal”? I thought not, neither would we. A yearly subscription to the five Lee papers would run you (or me) about $350. So, you can expect to see a lot less Montana coverage in the Button Valley Bugle in coming days.
I don’t believe that in the long run, our society can afford to offer widespread internet access to information and current affairs only to those with deep pockets and platinum MasterCards. When that happens, a democracy becomes a plutocracy.
The Missoulian is accepting both credit cards and plain English:
We’re eager to hear your feedback and to answer questions about our online subscription plan. Feel free to email editor Sherry Devlin at sdevlin@missoulian.com or to call (406) 523-5240 or (406) 523-5250.