Whether due to greed or desperation our local newspaper has started to charge for access to their website. Many newspaper websites have taken this route. Perhaps it is a necessary step, a needed path of revenue. Of course this assumes that the newspaper in question has a product worth buying. Our local newspaper is so lame that even investing the nominal charge of $10 a month is a difficult decision. After all, the main attraction of the site before was the ability to host my blog. Now that the blogs are gone the only remaining draw is the opinion section, or commenting on the various articles. Even that requires the nominal subscription and I am contemplating if it is worth the price.

The Newspaper, News Journal, it is called, is very much a small town publication with a most definite religious slant. Conservative in a high degree no doubt to the publisher Gannett, and the new individual installed at the helm of the News Journal. Catering to the audience in this town means being subservient to the religious.

My blog on the News Journal site, I have been told, created a great deal of traffic for the site, as well as caused many people to think. I was one of the few voices speaking out in opposition to those who toe the Republican speaking points and those who parroted the tired old memes of religious extraction. Now that blog is silenced, possibly forever.

If the blogs are returned to the site I might consider a subscription of nominal amount. It certainly isn’t worth it now.