http://www.courantalumni.org/2012/10/19/when-or-if-a-pay-wall/ Where The Latest On Former Hartford Courant Employees Can Be Found Wed, 15 May 2013 19:19:49 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 http://www.courantalumni.org/2012/10/19/when-or-if-a-pay-wall/comment-page-1/#comment-6677 Denis Mon, 22 Oct 2012 13:05:11 +0000 http://www.courantalumni.org/?p=7364#comment-6677 Since the projected launch has been delayed, this question surely is undergoing deep thought at 06115. I wonder what exactly what would go behind the wall to make it worth paying for? There's so much good stuff at the Courant but the common Globe-like"premium" approach of putting columnists and WSJ high-interest coverage behind the money fence pales some when there are so few columnists and the staff has been whittled down so much. The trap of local news, exposed so sadly when we did it in such abundance before is you can never do it right because local means different things everywhere. What's local news to me in West Hartford in Mozambique to someone east of the river. The fender-bender and pothole in Tolland isn't something I'd pay to read about. So if it isn't the "local" news and it isn't the personalities and it isn't the in-depth WSJ coverage not available anywhere else what is it? There is excellent political coverage and the LenderWorld is premium and Korky vann and theater and the like, but is that enough to constitute a behind-the-wall mall? And does skinnying up the standard product on behalf of the wall not ultimately lead to fewer people gathering the news, features and special reports that would be the fare of the wall itself? There's a spiral in that. Tricky game. Don't know where it's working where there's not something especially compelling to lure the readers to the new locale. Hopefully they'll find the path. Since the projected launch has been delayed, this question surely is undergoing deep thought at 06115. I wonder what exactly what would go behind the wall to make it worth paying for? There’s so much good stuff at the Courant but the common Globe-like”premium” approach of putting columnists and WSJ high-interest coverage behind the money fence pales some when there are so few columnists and the staff has been whittled down so much. The trap of local news, exposed so sadly when we did it in such abundance before is you can never do it right because local means different things everywhere. What’s local news to me in West Hartford in Mozambique to someone east of the river. The fender-bender and pothole in Tolland isn’t something I’d pay to read about. So if it isn’t the “local” news and it isn’t the personalities and it isn’t the in-depth WSJ coverage not available anywhere else what is it? There is excellent political coverage and the LenderWorld is premium and Korky vann and theater and the like, but is that enough to constitute a behind-the-wall mall?
And does skinnying up the standard product on behalf of the wall not ultimately lead to fewer people gathering the news, features and special reports that would be the fare of the wall itself? There’s a spiral in that.
Tricky game. Don’t know where it’s working where there’s not something especially compelling to lure the readers to the new locale.
Hopefully they’ll find the path.

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