Compaints over Newspapers requiring online registration
More and more newspapers’ online offerings require registrations. The New York Times was one of the earliest I remember. Being the nut that I am I refuse to frequent newspapers or other online news and current events media that require intrusive registration processes.
The newspapers argue a fair case for riding out the complaints against required registrations but I fear the online world has already moved past the their arguments.
People that get around to web logs (such as this one) on a regular basis may have noticed that the story has to be particularly juicy before we’ll link to a registration-required news source. Not necessarily because the site owner isn’t a registered user but because of the additional burden put upon their audience. That means these registration-required news sources are not getting the traffic and especially search engine benefits of the blog world.
No one can convince me that the newspapers don’t know the click through ad revenue they’re missing from this. That only means it’s more profitable to gather your personal information for sale or trade.
If everyone would refuse to give the New York TImes and Washington Post their names, addresses, birthdays, phone numbers, email addresses and shoe sizes maybe these organizations would give up registration-required policies. But I doubt it.