Good short piece in the Kitsap Sun yesterday by Tristan Baurick, on the Giant Pacific Octopus, the recent furor and ban due to one diver who killed one, and information on their locations on the Hood Canal (where their capture is banned).
Given that the Sun refuses to allow any reproduction of their articles in any form, and they have put up a pay wall, you’ll just have to go find it on your own. I’m not going to be supporting their actions by even reproducing one word of their content, nor am I going to be supporting having anyone find the links easier than I have to. The Sun should understand that those of us blogging out here are supporting them by advertising their work for free, and funneling viewers to their site. We have a unique set of readers, and are focusing our efforts on locale. We don’t compete for their advertising and even if we did, it’s doubtful we would eat into their paying customers, since ours is so much smaller than theirs. If they feel that any use of the content is prohibited, then they will have to forego our efforts. I take the same attitude towards the Port Townsend Leader, which I subscribe to. Newspapers continue to be almost clueless in how to drive online viewership. I fully understand the need to make a profit on their work, but limiting the reproduction of even leads (the first sentence or paragraph) is a recipe for failure.
Filed under: Around the Sound | Tagged: Giant Pacific Octopus, hood canal, Pacific Octopus |
I could not possibly agree more. Thank you for wording this dilemma so succinctly. It is truly baffling to me as to why any media outlet would want to go back to the stone age hoarding information when they can just join in the flow and be ready for the future.
Yes, Norm. I sort of think of it this way. If someone sees a newspaper lying around, and see the headline, they might pick it up and read it. No one gets money for that transaction. The Sun and Leader have already tried to sell advertising, but they will only get subscriptions if people find value in their unique news on the web. They do have some good unique reporting, but how will anyone find out if they don’t really have it pushed to them, by people like me?
Al Bergstein;
Your comments about paywalls for newspapers hit the nail on the haed. Newspapers are supposed to be reporting the news and the truth and they prevent that by excluding the very people who need and should and know that news item and information. Perhaps they are trying to force subscriptions? That will not work since there are way too many newspapers (and subscription prices) who have content worth reading. Shame on them.
The same kind of comments apply to scientific journals who have paywalls to get copies of papers of original research. Usually you can get the abstract alone but until you pay a $35 (approx.) to get a single paper, you are not given access to the paper unless you go through the hassle of finding the original authors email address or snail mail address and then write a letter asking for a copy. Every author I have asked always sends the paper quickly. Unfortunately, no environmental issue is solved or confined to a single original research paper. I would bet my database for marine reserves contains at least a thousand citations. Truth be told there are many articles that are available – but not enough. Anyone can go to Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com/ ) and avoid all the retail and hidden agenda websites and get just the scientific papers on any subject. I encourage every environmentalist to do just that.
This practice of setting up paywalls to get to the scientific truth is totally contrary to the basic philosophy of democratic principles especially for the environmental community which largely consists of volunteers who do this kind of work for free. With my academic connections where I can get almost any scientific article I want, I would guess I have supplied at least a hundred original scientific citations to other environmentalists and compatriots who needed a specific paper or set of papers.
Paywalls are also totally contrary to the principles of academic freedom spouted by nearly every university faculty person in the entire world every time the question of tenure is raised. That said, there is hardly any value to the concept of academic freedom unless money is somehow attached from a funding agency or the author can support their own research. I know people who do that. And in fact more and more funding agencies now ask all authors to sign a contract that allows them to not publish a paper if it in any way contradicts a hidden agenda – like the govt shenanigans going on in Canada with environmental and aquaculture issues.
Paywalls in any form for organizations – both for newspapers and scientific journals are serious hindrance to getting at the truth the people need to be informed and a slap in the face for keeping the people informed in a democracy. Not that I am opinionated or anything.
Norm Baker