OCR Launches Paywall

Mission Viejo watchdog Joe Holtzman sent a comment last week: “The OC Register has just established a ‘going out of business’ policy. See the following.”

From the Register’s website, “OC Register Digital Access. From now on, all of the Register’s original content will be available exclusively to our subscribers or to those who pay for it on an a la carte basis. We are dedicated to ensuring the satisfaction of our loyal customers, and we understand how frustrating it can be to know that others are getting for free the same value you are paying for. Please link your account below.”

No more freebies. No free Saddleback Valley News thrown in driveways, and now a paywall. How much value do readers place on something they’ve been getting for free?

A competitor offered an evaluation. Gustavo Arellano of OC Weekly wrote about OCR owner Aaron Kushner under a headline “OC Register Death Watch.”

UPDATE, MARCH 30, 13:00 P.M. I've previously called Kushner the Stuart Smalley of journalism, and that label will always apply. But let me apply another label to his paper's coverage of itself: Pravda, as in the legendarily bad newspaper of Russia's Communist Party and not the fashion line.

See, the paper will only allow positive coverage and comments about itself to appear in its pages and website. If you don't believe that the Register is the best gosh-darn newspaper in the country, then you're a bad person, and the paper simply won't acknowledge a meanie. In that spirit, the newspaper published a story about it erecting a paywall late yesterday on its website, and blocked readers from commenting at all, knowing full well there's going to be a revolt. http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2013/03/orange_county_register_paywall.php