Saunders

That's exactly what I did when they went to this Subscriber Plus model. I think a lot of their sports stories are cross posted to some of the smaller papers in the state, though. 

It's been tremendously successful from what I've heard but, yes, a lot of their exclusive content is gated now.

Personally, I have no problem with it. Some stuff should be and is out from behind the paywall (really significant matters of public safety, breaking news, or items that every other outlet has) but their exclusive content is the same online as it is in print.

It's a difficult battle to wage I think. Online content publishers spent years giving away content for free because that's where the online culture was at, and now a lot of publishers are trying to say 'wait a minute, just because it's online doesn't mean it should be free.' Many of them made their bed without realizing what they were doing, but I think readers (particularly younger ones) are coming around to being accepting of it.

@Enhance I think the difference is that they're charging for content, and still showing a boatload of ads. Compare that to something like The Athletic, which really capitalized on the move to premium content. They cover way more teams and sports, and have zero ads.

That's where I have the issue.