Brett Banter

A good friend asked me during lunch last week what I thought about the local newspaper decision to charge for online content. They like many in the community have not been thrilled with the idea even though they already get the newspaper. They think the newspaper is being hurt by losing all of those free readers.

I look at it a different way. If a real estate company owned a prime piece of property that was vacant, would they let someone work there for free? What if that person brought their friends in and started spray painting stuff on the walls? What if when someone came by to actually look at the building to rent, the freeloader hollered out the window to head down the street for a better purchase? The same goes for restaurants, retail stores, barbershops and the like. No smart businessperson would agree to such nonsense.

But that is what free newspaper websites have become. People would go on there using an assumed name (and not really a clever one), write horribly spelled and vile comments and often complain about a newspaper's coverage. The comments section have almost dried up in the local newspaper because the freeloaders have gone, but what good were they doing?

The paper still faces a public relations battle, but this was a good step.