Jamaica Gleaner now charges for online access

The Jamaica Gleaner Company, buoyed by increased readership online has taken a decision, like other online publications in the USA and UK to offer readers access to begin charging readers a fee to access its news online.

On Jan 2, 2014, the Gleaner began offering readers 15 articles per mth and their after you will be required to pay an initial fee of US $7.99 (discounted) per mth to read articles online. I supposed this is meant to increase its revenue given the fall off in purchase of the printed material coupled with the fact that many Jamaicans overseas do tap into the Gleaner for information on Jamaica on a daily basis.

This new decision by the Gleaner will no doubt see a reduction in the number of Jamaicans  locally who will access the online version as well as a reduction in the number of online comments on articles via the comments section made available for most articles. Honestly I cannot blame the Gleaner for charging readers for online access, as it cost money to put a newspaper together, then turn around and giving it away freely to anyone with access to an electronic device that can access the internet.

At the local level, I have observed  that the size of the local paper (width) appears to be significantly less than it used to be, which again would be a cost cutting step as the company looks to reduce its overall operating cost, in a rather tough economic climate.

Many locals are not happy with the move to charge for online access, but truth be told, nothing is life is totally free and it does take money to produce the paper and those bills must be paid.
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2 Responses

  1. So all I do now is read the headlines and move on to the Observer. I say all the best to the Gleaner!

  2. I have used up my 15 already. It works fine on the iPad app so I can still read from there. Just no comments to see.

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