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San Luis Obispo Tribune website begins charging for news 

San Luis Obispo Tribune website restricts news with paywall

It will now cost $6.95 a month to read the news online

San Luis Obispo Tribune

San Luis Obispo Tribune begins charging for news

The San Luis Obispo Tribune recently began restricting access to its news website www.sanluisobispo.com and charging for news.

The Tribune, owned by The McClatchy Group since 2006, is now charging readers to view the news online. The home page with headlines is still available for free viewing. With a team of professional writers, editors  reporters, photographers and columnists, the newspaper covers breaking news, politics, city hall, county government, police, crime, sports, entertainments and more in San Luis Obispo County.

The paper announced in December that it would restrict users to 15 views in a 30-day period, according to Cal Coast News.

According to the Tribune, reading the news online will now cost $6.95 per month or $69.95 per year.

The Tribune joins major national news organizations like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times in restricting access to free news and charging for access. In the news business, its called erecting a paywall. The Tribune currently claims a circulation of 34,211 in print and 400,000 unique visitors to the website every month.

Raising the paywall began in the largest national newspapers and is now starting to happen at smaller papers. The Paso Robles Press and Atascadero News recently began restricting online readers by only showing the first couple paragraphs of news for free.

The newspaper industry has been struggling with rapidly declining advertising and circulation revenues over the past decade. With readers turning to free news online, the industry has recognized it needs to seek other revenue sources to remain viable.

About the San Luis Obispo Tribune

From wikipedia – It was created in 1939 from a combination of three newspapers founded between 1869 and 1905, and was later acquired by the E. W. Scripps Company. Scrips traded the paper, along with The Monterey County Herald, to Knight Ridder in 1997, in exchange for the Boulder Daily Camera. The McClatchy Company took over the paper on June 27, 2006 when it acquired Knight Ridder, formerly the United States’ second-largest chain of daily newspapers. The paper’s publisher is Bruce Ray; its executive editor is Sandra Duerr.

The Tribune owns two weekly newspapers, The Cambrian and Sun Bulletin, which are located in nearby Cambria and Morro Bay, respectively. The Sun Bulletin no longer publishes. According to McClatchy, the newspaper’s daily circulation is 39,880, rising to 45,250 on Sundays. Total readership is estimated at 90,800 on weekdays and 102,800 on Sunday.

By Scott Brennan, Paso Robles Daily News, 607 Creston Road #2D Paso Robles, CA 93446. Join me on Google+

 

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About the author: Publisher Scott Brennan

Scott Brennan is the publisher of this newspaper and founder of Access Publishing. Follow him on Twitter, LinkedIn, or follow his blog.