An excerpt from Cleveland.com’s newsletter (signed by Chris Quinn):
“If you’ve never been in a debate with columnist Ted Diadiun, think dog with a bone. When he digs in, there’s no prying that bone loose.
I cannot count the hours I’ve spent going at it with him on whether newspapers erred when they made all of their content free online at the dawn of the Internet. Ted’s thought: Why would any company spend a fortune to produce a high-quality product – our content – and give it away? He says people should pay for things they value.
Come Monday, Ted will get his wish. Partly.
This is about so much more than an academic debate about strategy, though. The simple truth is we need your support to continue producing the journalism you value. Our watchdog reporting. Our bounty of information on surviving the pandemic. Our unique perspectives on your favorite sports teams. Our exclusive take on spending your entertainment dollar.
Ask yourself this: Where did you turn this week when you learned that the speaker of the Ohio House, one of the three most powerful people in the state, appears to be a crook, someone accused of masterminding a $60 million bribery scheme? For many people reading this, I know that answer. You turned to us.
You turned to us because when big news happens, you turn to the source you trust. Just as you did when the coronavirus became a pandemic.
My asking for your support is about whether you feel reassured by the fact we are here, whether you take solace knowing we care about you and look out for your interests. Do you rely on us to make sure tax dollars are not wasted, to ask the necessary questions of those in power, to keep you informed on what is happening in Northeast Ohio.
If you do, then please help us keep doing it. Please consider subscribing, to our website or to The Plain Dealer. Digital subscriptions to cleveland.com cost $10 a month or $100 for a year. At $100 a year, we are talking less than 28 cents a day. You can sign up here.
Starting Monday, access to some of our journalism will be limited to our digital and print subscribers. You’ve been seeing stories tagged as exclusive on our website for more than a month, and on Monday, we’ll reserve those stories for people who support our work.
Rest assured that most of the content on our site will remain free. Perhaps 10 to 12 stories a day will be tagged for subscribers only. We will experiment to see which stories have the greatest value for paying subscribers. And as we learn which stories our subscribers engage with the most, we will work to expand those offerings… ”