LA Weekly makes some interesting points about how an online subscription model could potential hurt a newspaper by cutting off its national or international influence. LA Weekly even implies the Los Angeles Times decision to make CalendarLive subscription-only could be part of the reason four arts writers left the Los Angeles Times for The New York Times recently.
Someone needs to argue with the LAT’s bean counters that the year-old controversial subscription model for its online Calendar coverage may be sending at least some of its superstar scribblers into the arms of the enemy.
….the Calendar staff is known to be peeved about the “let’s-try-to-make-a-buck” decision to change online viewing of Calendar’s articles and reviews from free to subscription. LAT sources say (architecture critic Nicolai) Ouroussoff nagged bitterly and repeatedly about it. As for (film critic Manohla) Dargis, in the words of one colleague, “She was very aware of being cut off from the world because Web sites that compile reviews would not have access to her work. And in the current environment out there, the Internet is where reviews are really bandied about.”
Dargis said that’s not why she left, and with the layoffs climate at the L.A. Times, it’s not surprising journalists might leap at the chance to work for The New York Times. Still, it’s a good point and one news organizations should consider before cutting off much of the world via a subscription service.
