Non-subscribers to be charged for online access

Starting Sept. 1, non-subscribers to The Spokesman-Review will be asked to pay $7 a month to view daily articles found on the paper’s Web site, www.spokesmanreview.com.

Subscribers to the print version still will have full access to online stories, said Shaun O’L. Higgins, The Spokesman-Review’s director of sales and marketing.

After the fee system goes into effect, many other portions of the paper’s online content will remain free, said Ken Sands, the online publication’s managing editor.

Access to classified ads, birth and obituary notices, prep sports schedules and scores, breaking news, Web logs, multimedia features and The Spokesman-Review online election guide all will be free, Sands said.

Also free will be all stories that appear in 7, the paper’s weekly guide to local entertainment.

Online newspaper archives are the exception; they have always been fee-based.

The $7 monthly fee, paid by credit card, will give online readers full access to each day’s stories and photographs. Readers get two options for reading stories, either in standard Web format or in an electronic facsimile version, said Higgins.

“Basically, we’ve had to recognize there’s a need to cover the cost of producing our news report, regardless of how we disseminate it,” Higgins added.

Another reason is one of fairness. “We believe it is unfair to ask print subscribers to subsidize free access by Web users,” he said.

Starting today, anyone who wants to view The Spokesman-Review’s Web site will need to re-register if they want to continue to access the service after Sept. 1, whether they’re already registered now or are print subscribers.

Those signing up for the $7 monthly fee will also have the choice of subscribing to the print paper, Sands said.