By: Mark Fitzgerald Arkansas Democrat-Gazette columnist Jay Grelen began pointing out Monday that lost amid the debate about the merits and minuses of charging for online newspaper content is his paper's actual success with an extensive paywall.
Grelen said he's bugged Walter Isaacson in his much-discussed Time cover piece on saving newspapers comes out for charging for content, without mentioning Walter Hussman, the Democrat-Gazette's publisher and Wehco Media chief who for more than a decade has preached against giving online news away for free.
He said he's also a little steamed that Steven Brill in his leaked memo says flatly, and erroneously, that no general-interest daily is charging for content.
"I'm fed up, and I want (Hussman) to have his due," the "Sweet Tea" columnist told E&P.
"Walter Hussman isn't talking theory," Grelen wrote in a letter sent to Time Monday. "He has written, and continues to update, the how-to manual. He led the charge to charge, and he has a healthy newspaper to prove he was right."
Not all of the newspaper's content is behind the Democrat-Gazette paywall, but nearly all staff-generated articles are. Hussman has argued charging for online content is one reason the newspaper's circulation has held steady, and even crept up in some years.
Grelen said the paper's circulation for the final reporting period of 2008 was up 1.7% on weekdays over the same period in 1998, and Sunday circ had declined just 1.1%. The paper is also consistently ranked among the top one or two metros with the highest household penetration.
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