I just deleted the MDJ from my favorites. At 50 cents it would be over priced.

The only online newspaper I glance at now is the AJC, and I say "glance" because most of that is drivel. I wouldn't pay to read it or any other newspaper.

MDJ has never been particularly good at what they do anyway, and AJC covers Cobb a lot better without the BS stories. There is no way that MDJ will be in existence for much longer if they continue on this route. If the New York Times, Washington Post and other eminent news organizations can't make a pay-per-article or subscription service work, what does a third rate rag like MDJ think they have to offer that is worth it?

Unfortunately, from my vantage point as a news consumer, the quality of traditional news reporting is poor. Don't get me wrong...the writing itself is top notch. But decisions regarding what gets covered and what doesn't, what is emphasized (front page) and what isn't (back page), he said/he said political coverage, and the inability or unwillingness to separate fact from fiction have been, I suspect, responsible for driving people away.

I rely on Patch and MDJ because I have no other choices...not because I'm happy with them. I'm as excited as the next guy about Food Truck Tuesday, but I would have been a lot happier if the primary campaign for my state senator and the underlying issues received half the coverage (in a timely manner) that the food trucks receive.

Two words: Creative Loafing.

I learned long ago most newspapers simply reprint AP news articles. When a newspaper puts up a pay wall I simply find a different paper. They all have the same story. The only advantage local papers have is when they do local news stories, but so much of that is merely police reports. I like the human interest stories but not enough to pay.

If you have the time, sometime pick a story, and then look at the byline. Nine times of ten you will see the AP as source. Check any newspaper in the country and you will see that story repeated. That is why certain stories get traction while others don't. The AP has a virtual lock on our news and what we see. And that is why I get a lot of my news from European sources. It's an entirely different world.

The only other difference is in the opinion columns. Each newspaper has their own columnists, but all too often it seems there is a theme of the day to their columns so even that gets repetitive and boring.

First, if you are gonna charge me for your content are you also gonna strip out your display ads from the content? Or do you plan on charging me twice? (Nevermind that NoScript, Greasemonkey etc. effectively remove all display ads from the pages I see, it is just the principle.)

Second, what is the price point? $10 a year? Might consider it. Above that, I'll probably pass and spend 5-10 min. figuring out how to disable whatever tracking ware some foolish publisher has spent way, way too much money to get.

I will pay for online news if it is a reputable paper. As an avid NYT reader, I've been paying for online access since the most recent pay wall was put in place. I understand quality content comes with a cost and I rather pay $15 per month than see it go away. I have a much higher threshold for local content as I am more interested in national and international content. The AJC leaves much to be desired and I stopped subscribing years ago. I never read the MDJ.

As much as I enjoy reading the comments on mdj, I certainly wouldn't pay for it. I barely read ajc. Their ability to get facts and spelling correct and to string together a proper sentence is minimal at best.

Nope, I am not going to pay to read the news. It's nice looking at the MDJ and AJC online, but I can do without them. All of the Patch sites are great at getting local news out there, and AOL and MSN are good at getting world-wide news out there. We're already paying for internet service, so having to pay to read something on the internet is unacceptable.

One more note about the MDJ. They seem to have the same story links on their homepage for several days. I don't really think I would miss their web site. I know I ain't paying $89.50 to look at it.

No. I'm in the advertising industry and believe supply and demand will take over. Decreased inventory will drive up inventory rates, which will make it more lucrative for some to be ad-supported again. At the same time, refusal to pay will decrease their viewership, which will cause concern and result in them eliminating the pay to view requirement. This has been tried again and again through history and failed.

I will absolutely not pay for news content. I already pay for the internet connection, for the power to use that connection, etc.

Besides, there are so many free news sources available that it's easy to find alternative sources. A news site would have to offer something very special to induce me to subscribe in a monetary way, and the newspaper sites I've seen online over the years are mostly yawnworthy.

The MDJ paywall, like most, is easy to get around. Just clear your browser cookies (or, if you're more tech-savvy, just the cookie for that site), and you reset the free-story counter. To make life relatively simple, you can have a browser you use just for news sites and clear your cookies every few days. That way, you'll never have to worry about news paywalls, and you won't accidentally delete a cookie you might want from another site.

Well, it's the 10th of the month and I've reached my limit on the MDJ web site for the month. Tried deleting the cookies, but that didn't work. I just hope that nobody pays them anything.

I just e-mailed several people at the MDJ and told them that I was not happy. Not that they care, but I told them anyway. Thanks, Chip, for the advice. My computer clears everything out when I turn it off, but apparently the MDJ remembers me anyway. Oh well.

Got a response from my e-mail to the MDJ people - they said to subscribe to home delivery and all of the internet activity would be free. Wrong answer. And, by the way, Chip, I manually deleted all of my cookies and files, and now I can get back on the MDJ and look at their outdated articles.