I took over the subscription from my parents when they retired and moved away 18 years ago.
It was not an easy decision. It was a family tradition. A morning ritual almost my entire life.
Some mornings while I was waking up, I would visualize what the front page looked like.
Although I miss the morning ritual, It was frustrating because it seemed like the paper had been gutted of local news.
It seemed like most of the reports were from out-of-town wire services. More and more, I was getting my local news from other sources.
The value of a local news paper is local news, and the Herald "local" section seemed to shrink over the years? Local issues, politics, and had great investigative reports of corruption and scandals is what sells papers....
Maybe it was budget cutbacks? Maybe it was editorial preference?
Whatever the reasons, the Herald is no longer a "great" American newspaper....it's not even a good paper.
So I canceled a few years ago.....and started checking in on-line occasionally to see the local headlines.......
It was annoying to be forced to look at advertisements on the web version of the Herald.....but I understood that the paper has to make money somehow...... so pop-ups and dancing toilet paper pays the bills.
But all things must eventually end.....so the Herald decided that the on-line version should be a fee based subscription service? I guess the ad revenue wasn't enough, so they decided to charge users......the final nail in the coffin in my relationship with the Herald.
This is a disastrous policy.....on-line viewing will drop.....and advertisers will eventually leave when they realize how many on-line readers have left.
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