The DW launched its redesigned website today. It requires registration to see more than the first 3-4 lines of a story.
"But in the near future, thedailyworld.com will become a paid Web site." But will paid subscribers have to endure sentences that begin with conjunctions?

<-------- Will not be a paid subscriber.

No cost to subscribers. Hmm... maybe will get a few people to get a subscription that otherwise wouldn't. But journalism isn't quite dead yet. Wait, what's a conjunction again?

The animation reminds me of Jay Ward productions. Anyone know if he, or his animator, was involved?

I couldn't find any connection between Schoolhouse Rock and Jay Ward, but it seems that when the idea was being pitched to then-ABC President Michael Eisner, he brought in Chuck Jones to listen to the presentation. Anyhow, the animation was produced by Phil Kimmelman and associates, with the design on this particular one by Tom Yohe and Bill Peckmann. I couldn't tie any of them to Jay Ward.

Typically, the Hurl's management has decided that instead of doing something to improve the product, they just need to charge more for it.

This is likely not local management's fault, although local management is certainly responsible for the quality of the product, and I say that without any malice or insult intended towards the reporting staff there.

Wow. I have to respect the paper for recognizing that changes are necessary and that what they are doing is not working. However, the changes that are being made appear to totally be off-base and ill-advised. I don't think there is any chance this will work. There's not enough news being offered nowadays anyway.

Living in Humptulips, the only thing reported on that I actually care about are the PUD and the County Commissioners and the radio does a fine job of covering those areas. Anything else I may be interested in, the radio will also pick up, which would be the big-ticket items, like a big concert or a new store, etc. And the "major" items, such as a Lindsey Baum case or a high school fire, still will be covered by TV and bigger papers. Too often, that coverage is better.

So, The Almost Daily World now offers Joe Humptulips nothing he cares about that he can't get anywhere else. I'm sure there are a lot of "Joe Humptulips" out there. Providing them with nothing relevant doesn't sound like a recipe for success to me. Unlike the previous poster, I know nothing of who is to blame for the changes. But I do believe that "blame" is the correct word and time will prove it so.

So Im wondering from reading all these post's.......... How Many of you will become paid subscriber? If you are not already, will you do so in order to gain access to the website? What is the trend: are other newspaper doing this???

To pull off a pay site, there needs to be a compelling reason to want to pay and that's in any niche, not just in particular to newspapers. They really need to be providing something that people can't get elsewhere.

Those people that already receive the paper delivered to their doorstep apparently will get access to the new site. So, they are relying on people that don't already subscribe.

I am kind of curious if they just flew into this blind or took some type of survey of visitors to gauge the interest.