Is this a paywall website now?

[Hugh Januss]

I keep getting subscription messages when I try to read anything. The incredible number of pop up ads was bad enough, but now I need to pay to see them? I'm out if so.

 

[andrew_s]

I found that when I re-enabled Javascript for cyclingnews.com, the subscription messages went away.

I'd guess that it may come to a choice of popup ads and autoplay videos etc, or a subscription, but I couldn't see any sign of any info on the subject.

 

[hulkgogan]

Seems to be, though typical cycling news, no warning, no information anywhere on the site that this is now the case. I'd be more inclined to pay if the site wasn't ridden with ads and shitty UI design.

 

[sir fly]

Get ready to pay for the Forum membership as well... 5 posts a month for free.
You'll need to pay your participation in creating content you're already paying to read.

Online Ponzi circle closed.

 

[manafana]

Get ready to pay for the Forum membership as well... 5 posts a month for free.
You'll need to pay your participation in creating content you're already paying to read.

Online Ponzi circle closed.

What are you even on about

 

[sir fly]

What are you even on about

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[Ripper]

Evidently interested in pushing more business to CyclingTips?

 

[tobydawq]

What on Earth have they done?

And yeah, of course no communication about it at all...

 

[Coppi42]

I keep getting subscription messages when I try to read anything. The incredible number of pop up ads was bad enough, but now I need to pay to see them? I'm out if so.

It is very disappointing to NOT be able to follow the CyclingNews Articles free beyond a taster short paragraph. Cycling as a sport is one of the free sports for the participant and getting up, having a nice coffee and browsing Cyclingnews in the morning was one of the few remaining simple relaxations in life after some 65 years of riding and racing. Even with the personal diatribes that appear in the Forum from time to time. The plethora of adverts is just plain annoying but to not be able to read reports is simply sadness. As another commentator said - not even a forwarning or explanation.

 

[Sciatic]

I don't know if you use other news media, but in the U.S. , most mainstream newspapers now require paid subscriptions to read more than 1 or 2 articles, or have an open site but the best articles are only accessible to subscribers. It's a disappointing trend to see, but it's been that way for professional journals for many years so not all that surprising.

 

[King Boonen]

I don't get these pop-ups?

 

[JetSet]

I wonder how the companies who advertise on this site feel about this. For sure the site is going to lose readership, i mean this isn't a major news outlet like The Guardian which has tens, if not hundred of thousand of readers, just saying.

Pete

 

[Devil's Elbow]

I wonder how the companies who advertise on this site feel about this. For sure the site is going to lose readership, i mean this isn't a major news outlet like The Guardian which has tens, if not hundred of thousand of readers, just saying.

Pete

The Guardian is thankfully still paywall-free, although as others are pointing out, that's become the exception among larger media outlets.

As for CN, the content quality relative to alternatives really doesn't justify paying money to me. If it were to extend to the forum at some point, that would cause irreparable damage, otoh...

 

[Eyeballs Out]

I don't get these pop-ups?

It's not a pop-up, clicking a story on the site brings up the page and the first few lines of the article but then...

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[sir fly]

I don't know if you use other news media, but in the U.S. , most mainstream newspapers now require paid subscriptions to read more than 1 or 2 articles, or have an open site but the best articles are only accessible to subscribers. It's a disappointing trend to see, but it's been that way for professional journals for many years so not all that surprising.

Are there CN papers?
... anywhere?

 

[Sciatic]

Are there CN papers?
... anywhere?

Yes, yes. . . I was going to use the term “news media” but I realized I don’t have a large enough sample size in other online news media to make a knowledgeable comment on paywalls, but do read 4-5 “newspaper” webpages and check dozens of others in the course of a week, so I can speak with some confidence to what is happening there.

I could also have used “traditional news media” but that includes TV and radio so that wouldn’t be accurate.
And I didn’t use “former newspaper websites” because all of 90% of the ones I read still produce daily hard-copy papers.

I realized making the reference to these news sites was not an exact equivalency to CN—but figured folks would understand the general trend I was speaking of, while I could be sure I was saying something based on a good body of evidence.

 

[sir fly]

I've never seen an exclusively online news portal asking for a subscription.
Those having paper issues I can understand.

Possibly one of the effects of collaboration with the ProCycling magazine.

 

[Sciatic]

I've never seen an exclusively online news portal asking for a subscription.
Those having paper issues I can understand.

Possibly one of the effects of collaboration with the ProCycling magazine.

Good point, I didn’t remember whether CN was once a paper rag.

 

[King Boonen]

It's not a pop-up, clicking a story on the site brings up the page and the first few lines of the article but then...

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I don’t get this either. What articles is it happening on?

 

[Eyeballs Out]

I don’t get this either. What articles is it happening on?

For me, it's every item under News and Results; most items under Features and Tech (unless it's an advertising feature)

I wondered whether it was to do with ad-blockers so I just tried a different browser without any ad-blocker on and it let me read my 5 news items and then paywalled on the 6th. So doesn't appear to be an ad-blocker thing

Maybe forum mods are exempt

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Update

Cleared all cookies/temp files and not getting the issue now

 

[dusty red roads]

I get it on one browser but not another (that one clears cookies all the time and has an ad blocker).

 

[jmdirt]

At home I can only see 'News' in the top banner (no more forum access for me), and it doesn't show me the pictures that go with the stories. I thought that it was my Avast add/track blocker that started blocking things and won't let me turn it off, but it sounds like others are having similar issues? Its functioning the same as it was here at work...who knows. I'm going to try clearing the cache when I get home and see if that helps like eyeballs out did.

Side note, I might get rid of Avast Free because it 'takes' too much of the control.

EDIT: It was Avast Ad-block. They hide the controls really well, but a Google search lead me to a fix.

 

[BlueRoads]

The Guardian is thankfully still paywall-free, although as others are pointing out, that's become the exception among larger media outlets.

As for CN, the content quality relative to alternatives really doesn't justify paying money to me. If it were to extend to the forum at some point, that would cause irreparable damage, otoh...

I agree. I see why websites do it, that journalists need to live of something as well, but the content at cn, although it comes in handy, is nowhere in terms of exclusiveness, insight or originality to make me think about paying for it. The development could just drive me towards twitter and such. And if they extend it to the forum... we can always make our own forum (and website). The content many users here produce is better than that of the main page anyway.

 

[tobydawq]

This seems absurd. I didn't get my five new articles at the turn of the month but I can just go incognito, and then there are no problems.