Newspapers riding out complaints over online registration - AP

By Joann Loviglio
Associated Press


PHILADELPHIA -- Imagine if a trip to the corner newsstand required handing over your name, address, age, and income to the cashier before you could pick up the daily newspaper.

That's close to the experience of many online readers, who must complete registration forms with various kinds of personal data before seeing their virtual newspaper.

The requirement has irked some readers and privacy advocates, led to the creation of Web sites to foil the system, and could be failing to provide the solid demographic information that the system was intended to capture.

Despite these concerns, a growing number of newspapers including The Philadelphia Inquirer in March and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in April have moved to online registration in the past year.

Industry representatives argue that because their Web readers get the same content as the paper-and-ink edition without paying for it, it's fair to ask them for personal information in exchange for access. They also say that collecting such data is becoming essential as the news business evolves.

More...

http://www.presstelegram.com/Stories/0,1413,204~21478~2210496,00.html#

(I am sure that his appeared in many newspapers but this one, so far, is free...)

To register to read that article.

Registration is a real pain in the ass. And why do they need to know my name, address, and email?

What's the big deal? If it's such a privacy rights hassle then go buy one at the newstand.
Geez... it's a gift horse people.

For example, the link came from the Long Beach Press Telegram. Where can you find it if you do not live in Long Beach, CA?

Or put another way, not everything is worth at least zero.

Newspapers make the bulk of their money from ads, not newstand sales.
Online you still have to deal with their ads, even more so with those
damn pop-ups. If I want to read an article in, for instance, the Chicago
Tribune, going to the newstand is not an option.

I have a "fake" email that I use on all of those and I never check it except to keep it active. Some poor soul may get telemarket calls for someone they have never heard of with the fake number I use. And I am always John Smith or something on those sites.

I now have LA Times, NYT, WP, Detroit Free Press, 2 or three Texas papers, several Florida papers, AJC, Kansas City Star, nearly all the Chicago and San Francisco papers... I loose track. So, I guess I must have registered for at least 20 or 30 by now and it is worth it, I suppose if you go to them freguently (LAT, NYT, WP probably worth it...) But, to have to go register to see some linked article in a West Virignia newspaper? I really appreciate it when DUers give most of the detail in the synopsis so I don't feel compelled to do so.


BTW, will someone tell me about the programs that get around registration? Is there a downside to that?

I can't see their virtual readership increasing with it and a lot of people are turned off with the actual print paper by it too. I definitely believe this info will be used sooner/later for marketing purposes.

Make up an amusing name.

since these can be verified by my IP. I give my correct email since I can use it when I don't remember my user ID and password. And I had no problems with spam - fingers crossed... And even though they put cookies they do not work, for some reason, if I had not visited the site for several weeks, or months.

But this is all that I give them. I posted here the story when the WP started with registration. For occupation, or work, I selected the "declined" or 'not working" - don't remember by now. When it insisted on this info, I became the CEO of an aerospace industry employing 10,000 people.

I have registred both as a male and a female, and had my birth years ranging from 1930 to 1965...

The L.A. Times has been tinkering with paid subscription but I doubt that it would work, since it has been losing many print subscribers. It does require registration and allows for searching the archives for pay, which is fine. Several months ago it blocked their free "Calendar" - with all the Hollywood gossip unless one is a subscriber for their print edition which, unless one lives in SoCal, many are not.

These on-line registrations work by writing a cookie to your cookie cache. That's fine with me -- cookies are harmless.

What I do is to sign up with bogus information, including using names like "Respect My Privacy" and "No Big Brother".

The cookie is written. I get access to the site.

I don't buy the argument that we're getting something free that we should be paying for. Given half a chance, the business community in this country would re-institute slavery and charge us for the privilege.

The light from their advertisments intercepts a certain proportion of my eye's rods and cones, and impresses itself on a certain number of my brain cells. Under most legislation, if I were to consider one brain cell to equal one instance of spamming, I could get home delivery of the Philadelphia Inquirer until shortly before the Sun turned into a white dwarf star.

--bkl

I have heard that many newspaper sites install spyware and/or adware. So far, my MC - fingers crossed - is immune to these pests, too.

I've never told the truth on an on-line registration, ever. So I don't care about the privacy issue; it's just a waste of time issue.

Get the the info once, plug it in, and you're good to go every time you revisit the newspaper's site.

I bless the DUer who first mentioned it.

I never signon to that id......
the id becomes my first name, my last name, my hint, and I am born in 1911......the only hard part is the zip code...it recognizes when you put in a false zip code...

That way all the junk mail goes to an id I very rarely or never check.

My online registration info:

First name: Privacy
Last name: Nut
Address: 1400 Pennsylvania Ave.
City: Washington
State: DC
Zip: 20171
Year of Birth: 1903
Sex: Female

I use a unique email address for every registration I complete. That way if they start send spam to that address I can redirect it back to them.

:evilgrin:

The Nyt also. I lied and that was many emails ago. The wapo pissed me off . I have an account but the login is too much.

Many folks post from these papers. As a courtesy,I think that they need post the article and bypass the signing.

Its so easy. Go to the page you need to post,find it in your history file and click it and drag it to the DU field. Be sure to keep it clear of your text.

I don't understand what you mean. I'd be surprised if there are ways of getting past the web servers' cookie requirements - just having the address of a particular page doesn't normally get past the registration.

You have to register to read the paper. What I was trying to get those that are registered is post the article and not the register page.


http://www.nytimes.com This is the login.

This is the story.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/13/international/americas/13ECUA.html?hp

If you want read the La Times/Chicgo trib or the NYT,use my log in.

Name:bullroar0
password: stole2own4

force you to the login page even if you try to go straight to the article, if you haven't already registered (which would have left a cookie on your computer). It's rare that anyone here just posts the front page of a paper - they post the address of the article, but you still need to register.

I'm still not sure what you mean by the "DU field". Do you just mean the 'Message' window you type in to? If so, where else would you put a link?

Copyright doncha know.

They don't need to know how much I make. I usually tell 'em I make less than $20,000 and live in Mississippi. :-)

'cept I say Georgia. Where I am actually from...just not currently living

... with bogus info and certainly not a real email addy because that is a lot of what they are after - to send you more spam.

I generally just blow off papers that require a long form. The info is usually available somewhere that doesn't require that crap.

You can read what's happenening all over the world.
So they get your name, age and e-mail address. Big deal.