Does anyone know why the Bloomington Herald Times Online is still password protected? It’s not like news is going to be kept locked inside the city limits of Bloomington.

Maybe the thousands of Hoosiers fans willing to pay for access keep the subscription model worthwhile despite the fact that it keeps many people out of the Herald Times Online website?

Why not move beyond the confines of the limited subscriber base and open up the newspaper to the world? More web traffic would mean higher advertising rates for online advertising and expanding readership beyond just Monroe County, Indiana.  More web traffic usually translates into higher revenue!

Is the Herald Times Online the last newspaper in America locked away behind a subscriber-only iron curtain?  The New York Times opened its doors in an effort to increase advertising revenue.  And, there was some talk about the Wall Street Journal doing the same — although most of the news and opinion is freely available on the WSJ site.

The subscription only model just keeps the newspaper low in the rankings for news sources people rely upon in Indiana.

Who is going to link to the newspaper if readers outside of Bloomington cannot read the news stories? Since news is plentiful, people just find their news elsewhere and there are plenty of options for local news from Bloomington, Indiana.  I’d love to be able to read and link to the Herald Times every so often — especially since I’m hoping my kids attend college at my alma mater.

If the Herald Times Online desires to have a subscription only model, why not free up the local news content — it’s probably not the real money maker — and require paid access to Indiana University basketball stories where loyal Hoosier fans are willing to pay a premium for access to Hoosiers news.

In the meanwhile, here are my favorite / alternative news sources from Bloomington news:

The Indiana Daily Student and its fine Sample Gates Blog.

WIBC

The Bedford Times-Mail

The Bloomington Alternative

And, for court information, the State of Indiana’s Odyssey Case Management System (limited to Monroe County and Marion Co.’s Washington Twp.)

Technorati Tags: blogging, Bloomington Indiana, Herald Times Online, internet, local newspapers, online newspaper subscriptions

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