Yes, I am three years old.
Nature finds a way. Always.
In the past, you could try and control the news, parcel it out at the rate you wanted and make people pay every time they read it, but that time has passed.
The Whidbey Island newspapers, which would prefer you didn’t look behind the curtain and realize they’re all owned by one of the largest media conglomerates going, Black Press of Canada, are locked in denial and they’re not coming out any time soon.
Access to their web sites (which is where far more people are looking for their news as print editions of newspapers wither on the vine) is limited to a handful of articles per month before the screen goes gray and a popup attempts to block your access.
I use the word “attempt” for a reason, since, if you go to the side and hold down the mouse, the articles roll upward, paragraph after paragraph coming up over the top of the popup.
Guess what? Live with the gray of the screen and you just read the entire article … for free.
When a commentator on the News-Times Facebook site raised the question of why articles weren’t freed for reading after their expiration date, a Canadian-paid employee tried to draw a comparison to the bakery at Safeway giving away its inventory at closing, saying you couldn’t expect that, could you?
Well, except that DOES happen EVERY day.
When it was pointed out that Safeway, like all grocery stores on the Island, do EXACTLY that, donating large quantities of merchandise to local food banks, the offending comment, and the one that provided the set-up for the rebuttal, suddenly vanished.
I’m not saying the Canadian-financed papers, which send most of their profits back to Canada no matter how many times a random employee or two may purchase cheese and wine at local shops (David Black is NOT operating a non-profit), would deny people access to food.
Even those who can not always pay for it.
But, they would deny you access to news.
Including news about … the food banks.
The “local” papers are using a broken business model, clinging desperately to the belief that they, and they alone, are capable of providing you with the news.
When they are beaten, consistently and loudly, by a one-man operation working on a computer run by two hamsters on a treadmill, they are prone to getting seriously defensive.
They don’t like other people getting the news out there before them, free of charge for all to read.
It threatens their ability to buy wine and cheese, because, at some point, the bean counters in Moose Jaw may realize the business model is broken and shut it down.
And then they might have to become familiar with the local food banks.
Of course, that could be a liberating experience, finding out how many people on Whidbey Island actually do give stuff to others without requiring something in return.
And yes, I once cashed checks from the Canucks, when I was Sports Editor at the News-Times from 1992-1994. We all have our youthful indiscretions…
Coupeville Sports 