I’d like to ask for your help. ArtsJournal has traditionally not linked to stories behind hard paywalls because our readers can’t see them unless they pay. We have, however, linked to stories behind “soft” paywalls such as the New York Times, LA Times and others. On these sites you can access stories until you reach the limit. And even then, by using different browsers or computers you can often get around the paywalls.
BUT: An increasing number of news sites are now going to the paid subscriber paywall model. And a growing number of ArtsJournal readers are getting frustrated clicking through to stories they can’t see unless they pay. Alas, we can’t do anything about that (we’ve tried…. really).
We have always considered AJ to be a curated survey of stories you should know about. The average reader scans stories, clicking through to about 20 percent of the links to read the whole story. Thus the headlines are a good “scan” of what’s out there. If you come to the website or subscribe to the premium newsletter, [sample here] you also get a short description of the story – so a little more information about the story so you can decide whether to click.
I’d like to ask you to participate in a short survey about what we should do about stories behind paywalls – it’s only three questions – so we can figure out how we should deal with them. Thanks! [CLICK HERE TO PARTICIPATE]
- Doug McLennan, Editor