Thanks for a good, comprehensive look at this. The local so called management apparently has no policy authority. For answers, you'd need to get to Gannett management. Robert Dickey runs the newspapers; he's the one to talk with.

Thanks for the info, Mr. Correa.
My condolences to all the workers at the Courier-Post. It's only a matter of time.
While I never did like the Courier-Post, R.I.P. anyway.

I subscribe to several newspapers and am continually surprised at the curious lack of proofreading and editing in the Courier-Post. I can only hope that the price increase will be put toward the purchase of spelling and grammar books. Fingers crossed.

Mark, You were the moderator of the Courier Post forums? what happened?

Mark - as a CP print subscriber I don't appreciate being forced into a bundled option. Truthfully, I only read a few of the issues each week and never visit the CP's digital version. So this action will likely lead me to cancel - it represents a price hike.

But I do want to address one point you made: "the company has decided their online product is now so vital that you can only read it if you pay for it."

A media property like CP cannot exist for much longer unless it charges for content. And it needs digital to earn in order to compensate for decreasing profits (likely to cover the loss) from the print product. Ad revenue for a site like CP is low, especially when you see Google ads. And I doubt their traffic is that high to begin with.

The print version of the newspaper is going away (maybe something like a weekend edition will be printed to grab some automotive ad $'s, but that's it). The model no longer works, print ad revenue has cratered and the classified advertising that used to be the lifeblood of the medium is gone.

This is the first step in transitioning people over to digital as paying customers - it's the only way that the CP can survive as a media property. Will subscribers buy in? Probably not. Local newspaper audiences skew older, so getting their customers over to 100% digital is going to be a challenge. And it was handled badly.

Occupant: yes, I was the c-p new media editor from 2006 to 2011 ... I quit in August 2011 to take another job. But since I was so wrapped up in the site for so long, I can't seem to stay away.

Just notice that this post does not include the disclaimer I thought I wrote with regard to the Barrington Bulletin. For the record, that is my own hyper local news site.

Porter: I agree with everything you wrote. My comment was a little bit of a shot against the company that - I feel - has mismanaged an important local resource toward oblivion.
That said, they do need to find a working business model ... And the way this was handled has been quite sad (especially when you consider that my former supervisor, Leon Tucker, still has not responded to my requests for information about the pay wall).

I pay $9.99 mo for digital Inquirer and Daily News.. Jan 2013 it will be free for print subscribers.

I've been getting the Inquirer on Kindle for $5 month for a couple of years now. They've raised the price to $10, I guess for new subs. I'm still paying $5.

I know someone who was laid off from the Courier. They are being extremely foolish. The only people who read print this days are either over 60 or have tons of free time and or cash. Didn't they learn from the failed experiment at USA Today doing paid online subscriptions? The writing is on the wall. Advertisers will be fleeing like rats on a sinking ship when they see the results of readership loss.