A brief word on Paywalls for NZ Herald

By
Martyn Bradbury
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9
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new-york-times-paywall

John Drinnan: Paywall high on agenda
One of “Hurricane Jane” Hastings’ first tasks in her expanded role as New Zealand boss of APN News & Media will be preparation for the Herald internet paywall – most likely in the third quarter of this year.

If NZ Herald puts up a paywall, can we please, please, pelisse, please make sure Stuff do as well? Especially the hideous ‘stuff nation’ section. PLEASE put that behind a paywall.

PLEASE!

Imagine how much better public debate would be without Stuff and NZ Herald. Seriously. How much illumination to the national discourse does someone like Bob Jones bring to the table? He wrote a snuff column where he boasted about goading another human being into suicide. Wouldn’t it be better for society as a whole that his opinions and so much of what pass for opinion in NZ newspapers be behind a paywall? Let’s include the racist cartoons of Al Nisbet, the one sided pro corporate editorials, the ‘news’ that merely reinforces the status quo.

How about this story, Who stole all the pies? This guy, when a story about a beneficiary stealing food because he is hungry is made into a joke, wouldn’t we all be better off as a society of that viewpoint and sense of humour was behind a paywall so the rest of us don’t have to tolerate that bullshit?

As blogs replace newspapers, I welcome the final roar of a dinosaur industry putting their content behind a paywall. The less mind pollution corporate media have to offer, the better the debate will become.

So I say to newspapers – build those Paywalls. Build them to the sky! Protect us from your warped ‘objective’ view of the world.

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9 COMMENTS

  3. I am no fan of the corporate media, but why is limiting access to different pints of view “better for democracy”?

    • Do we really see different points of view? Most of the opinions that I’ve read in the NZHerald and Stuff are out and out RWNJ.

  4. Wouldn’t it be better for society as a whole that his opinions and so much of what pass for opinion in NZ newspapers be behind a paywall?

    It would be, yes – the problem is that that sort of shit wouldn’t be behind the paywall.

  5. As blogs replace newspapers, I welcome the final roar of a dinosaur industry putting their content behind a paywall. The less mind pollution corporate media have to offer, the better the debate will become.
    So I say to newspapers – build those Paywalls. Build them to the sky! Protect us from your warped ‘objective’ view of the world.

    And so say all of us.

    That way if any of their content is ever socially worthy we will get to hear of it any way.

    Meantime, while we are waiting, the sooner they pave over their own graves the better.

  6. Personally I had hoped that blogs would replace the main media outlets, but so far this is not happening, and I fear it will not happen, not for some time yet.

    The problem is, as bad as some journalists are, and as biased much of the MSM are, they have access to sources of information, to politicians and so forth, which few bloggers have to the same degree. Also do many organisations, businesses and even research and education institutions have media departments or persons dealing with the media. Who of all bloggers, and commenters, can claim to have easy access to those sources, I ask?

    There would have to be much more access available to more information for bloggers and social media to finally replace mainstream media, as we simply have not got the same financial and other resources.

    I wish it was different, but this is stuff to perhaps ponder on.

  8. “How much illumination to the national discourse does someone like Bob Jones bring to the table?”

    Spot on Martyn!

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