Serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis. © James Conner.
Imagine if the only place one could afford to read the local newspaper online was at the local public library. That no longer takes much imagination. Meaningful access to more and more major and minor newspapers alike now requires a paid subscription as publishers erect Iron Curtain-like online paywalls on their websites.
The Kalispell Daily InterLake’s paywall is one of the toughest: five free reads a month. Basically, one free read a week. After that it’s $12 per month. Just three dollars a month more buys access to the New York Times, a much better newspaper and a better bargain.
Most, perhaps all, daily newspapers in Montana and elsewhere now require a paid subscription for unlimited online access. Kalispell’s still free online weekly Flathead Beacon is an exception, but I suspect it will build a paywall as soon as it thinks it can get away with it.
Some publishers believe that paywalls compel online moochers to finally pay their fair share. But reading an online publication without going through a paywall is not mooching. It’s akin to enjoy broadcast radio and television that obtains their revenue from advertising. Paywalls are about making every last dollar there is to be made by squeezing every last cent out of the reader.
Whether that’s capitalism at its most efficient and noble manifestation, or greed at its most depraved, depends on one’s economic creed.
But paywalls come with a social cost. The great promise of the internet is distributed knowledge with affordable access available to all. That promise dies when pay-to-click becomes universal. Just a handful of subscriptions to local and national publications can easily cost hundreds of dollars a month (and most academic journals are already out of economic reach for most people outside the academy). That’s especially burdensome for low income families and seniors. It widens the resource gap separating poor students from their wealthier classmates. And it increases the isolation of seniors. Civilization does not benefit from these outcomes of paywalls.
But public libraries might benefit if they offer access to publications behind the paywalls that citizens cannot afford to cross. Instead of teaching people how to build chicken coops, the Flathead County Library (aka ImagineIF Libraries) could, for example, purchase institutional access to the InterLake as a way of mitigating the impact of paywalls. That would be a service of considerable value to the community. Imagine if that actually happened.