We hear fairly often from regular readers frustrated that some articles we link to are behind a paywall. That is, you may need a subscription from the publisher to see the article, which is the case with the Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal and some others.
We understand the frustration and it’s a matter we have struggled with, but here’s how we’ve decided to handle it for now:
We will soon start marking with an asterisk those that might require a subscription, but we will continue to link to them, for several reasons.
First, most publishers that require a subscription do allow you a certain number of free views per month, so an asterisk doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t be able to see it. That will depend on how often you’ve visited their site recently.
Second, we think it’s important to link to all major or significant articles, from all political viewpoints, and we spend lots of time identifying those for you. We think you should at least know about them, even if you only see only the headline and short summary. Those may include op-eds by important people, editorials from major papers and national publications that deemed a particular Illinois story newsworthy for the whole nation.
Third, we do try to stick to free stories whenever we can. For routine news items that are widely available, we usually find a free source.
Fourth, we want to respect ownership of the stories. A source that produces the best or first article on a particular topic should get the credit with a link. Though we often criticize some of the media, many are struggling with financial problems, and we are happy to be sending hundreds of thousands of pageviews to them on their best stories. We also keep our summaries of their stories fairly brief, again out of respect for their work product.
We do not share in or profit from any links to articles from other sources, and you will never be asked for payment on our own articles, which appear in the right column of our homepage.
We hope that works. Feel free to make suggestions on this or other topics in our comment areas or by email.
-Mark Glennon
A set of state lawmakers want to extend CPS’ current school closing moratorium to February 1, 2027 – the same year CPS is set to transition to a fully-elected school board. That means schools like Manley High School, with capacity for more than 1,000 students but enrollment of just 78, can’t be closed for anther three years. The school spends $45,000 per student, but just 2.4% of students read at grade level.
Hopefully, all media will get the message, in Illinois, too.
Ted joined Tom Miller of WJPF to talk about Illinois’ highest-in-the-nation property taxes, why lawmakers don’t want to touch the tax’s cost drivers, just how much Illinoisans’ tax burden has grown over the decades, why Gov. Pritzker failed to meet his promise to reform property taxes, and more.
Thanks Wirepoints/Mark. Agree with this approach. On my own personal note, running into a paywall for articles from the Trib is cause to chuckle, as if they think they’re some kind of “value” anymore…sorry, that washed away like an avalanche years ago.
A useful addition to Wirepoints. When the Trib or Sun Times blocks a topic, it’s very annoying. Hence, an asterisk is worthwhile. Thanks.
The way to circumvent sites that allow a certain number of free views like the Tribune is to use a different browser. For example, I mainly use Firefox. I use up my free views for the Trib, I use another browser like Chrome, then Chrome, then Brave, etc.
Another way is to just clean out all of your cookies using http://www.ccleaner.com. Works everytime.
Any go to place to get John Kass other than Tribune??
On your phone, there’s a lot of multi news apps that let you read trib. Google news app is the best but doesn’t let you get past blocker for trib or crains. Microsoft & yahoo apps are also good
Some of the WSJ articles at least are free. I’ve noticed I don’t always have to log in to read the whole thing. I generally wait until I’m at home to do it, which logs me in automatically.
Paywalls don’t bother me. However, some of these subscription sites need better business models. I’m not paying Crain’s $14/mo when I might read only a few articles per week. When I hit the Crain’s paywall, I should have the option to spend 25 cents on that article. It’ll add up over time. Would you rather have $3 per month from me or nothing?
After reading a few articles in Crain’s I decided it wasn’t worth the time in reading it much less pay for it. To each their own.
It’s called capitalism and the reader is free to choose whether or not they want to buy the product.