"Paywall suicide"

DCRTV reports "slumping morale" at the Sun after the paywall reports (quoted b/c the dcrtv site won't let you link to individual posts):

Sun Insider: Web Paywall "Suicide" - 9/27 - Updated. DCRTV hears from an inside source that morale at the Baltimore Sun is slumping after news, which DCRTV broke first last week, that the Tribune-owned newspaper will be erecting a paywall around its baltimoresun.com website. "Morale in the newsroom is at a low point. No one can understand why we'd make print subscribers pay for the online stuff. It's just suicide, an experiment being carried out by the Tribune on just one of its properties." The website access plan, which takes effect October 10, will cost $2.49 a week or $49.99 for 26 weeks, after an introductory discount. Print subscribers will receive a reduced rate of 75 cents a week or $29.99 a year. While Sun has since run several articles about the paywall plan, "On Monday, management shut down the comments section on the Sun paywall story. They are insisting we call it a 'digital subscription.' And any comments by staff bloggers and Tweeters must be cleared by Editor Trif Alatzas," says the source. "Freedom of speech for Sun readers and writers? Not so fast." More: We hear from another source at the paper who says that there's been "no directive about Tweeting or blogging, though certainly if someone Tweets something stupid or blogs erroneously... then they're going to get corrected." Also, the Sun is not the only Tribune paper erecting a paywall - the Allentown Morning Call is doing it, too, we're told. "I think most of us actually are nervously hopeful that this will work out. We've cut a ton of people and content in recent years through buyouts and layoffs and we want to see that stop".....

Would u pay $129.48 a year for the Sun? (I pay more than that for the NYTimes.. but it's the NYTimes...!) ... wonder why Trib co. picked the Sun and the Allentown paper, and not, say, the Hampton Roads Daily Press?

In other news of broke-azz sources, the company that owns the Jewish Times and Style magazine is in the midst of an acrimonious bankruptcy proceeding. The JT's printer claims Alter Communications owes them $1.77 million(!)

June 5

Many of the 41 Sun employees who took the most recent buyout enjoyed their last day Friday and have now left the building; more layoffs are possible.

A Wicomico County Grand Jury on Monday indicted Tracy Ross Sparpaglione, a recently fired Salisbury police officer accused of raping a woman he arrested late last month.

Evening

A not-yet-ID'd man was shot to death on York Road and Chateau Avenue.

Deander Salmond, 19, died after being shot in the Southwestern Tuesday night.

The jury has sentenced John Gaumer to life in prison.

Inventor Paul Biermann at Hopkins' Applied Physics Laboratory in HoCo is trying to invent shank-proof prison toiletries.

(Alleged) perv of the day: Patrick McIntyre, a seventh-grade science teacher at Immaculate Conception School, removed from his job following allegations that he sexually abused a male student in the late 1970s.

Media Corner:
Staffers rallied on Calvert Street today to "Save our Sun!"
Quoted copy editor: "We’re working hard to bring readers the best news we can ... But the more they drain our staff of talent, the less of a good job we’ll be able to do.”
The Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild today began attempts to negotiate a new contract with management, and has also hired a PR firm to "represent its viewpoint to the media."

What if indeed!

Funniest! Billboard Ever!
For literally months I drove by it and assumed it was urging people to get tested for some "social disease"!
I finally noticed it's for ... the Sun.
I love how it asks and answers its own question!
"What if you didn't know?"
You'd be a Sun reader, of course!
(Wouldn't "what if you knew" be more, um, positive?)
Wonder how many thousands the Tribune paid for that powerful call to action to get news from somewhere else?