We announced a couple of weeks ago that our website will be moving to a metered model and I invited folks to reach out with any questions or concerns. We’ve had a handful of readers and advertisers do exactly that, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to address the questions we’ve been hearing the most.
The biggest concern we’ve heard from the community is that the physical newspaper might be going away due to this new online model, which couldn’t be further from the truth. But now I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s do this in a proper Q&A format, just to keep things nice and simple.
Will there still be a physical newspaper?
Yes, absolutely. Whether you purchase the newspaper around town, have it delivered to your home, get it through the mail when out of state or drop by our office on Wednesday mornings to snag a copy, the newspaper will be available exactly as it has always been.
Our print product is our primary focus. The introduction of the online metered model is simply our way of providing more of the news that is available in the physical paper to people who prefer to do their reading online.
So what is a metered model, anyway?
A metered model simply means that folks who only want to read the news online will now have access to more of the articles we run in the paper. But, again, we can’t simply run everything online free of charge. For folks who visit our website, they will receive a limited number of free articles each month. Once they hit that limit, they will be invited to pay $5 for unlimited access to all of our articles for the next 30 days.
If I subscribe to the paper, how will this affect me?
This is the one I’m actually really excited about, as we want to provide the easiest access to all of our content for our subscribers. We’ll be announcing more details as they are finalized but, in short: You get it all.
Once the metered site goes live, we’ll be introducing new subscription models that keep things nice and simple. Moving forward, if you subscribe to The Fountain Hills Times, you’ll get the physical newspaper, unlimited access to our website and even access to the e-edition, in case you prefer to read the paper on your various devices.
We want our subscribers to get everything under a single roof and we want our advertisers to be able to reach each and every one of our subscribers. This seems like the best way to achieve those goals.
But what if I’m a current subscriber? Do I get unlimited access to the website?
You absolutely do! We’re working on the technical side of things at the moment, but current subscribers will be able to contact us with some additional information in order to get their online account set up.
But what if I’m happy with the paper and don’t want to mess around with any of this online stuff?
The good news is that you don’t have to! Again, we’re trying to make this as seamless and simple for everyone involved. If you are happy with the way things are, then you can pretty much ignore everything I’ve said here and go right ahead enjoying your community newspaper the way you always have.
Think of all of this “metered” talk as simply another option for folks who only want to get their news online. If that’s not you, then this won’t have an impact on you.
Are you tired of questions yet?
Not in the least! I want to make sure we’re as clear about this process as humanly possible, so I welcome any and all questions if you still have something that needs clearing up.
If you would prefer to go one-on-one, simply send an email to ryan@fhtimes.com and I’ll do my best to get you the details you need.
In the meantime, feel free to drop by fhtimes.com to see why we’re going to the metered model. From the front page to the individual sections, we’re piling on more stories than ever before. We put a lot of work into covering the community of Fountain Hills, and we simply want more people than ever to be able to “read all about it.”
