By: Jay DeFoore The Toronto Star has rid its Web site of pesky registration barriers, Publisher Michael Goldbloom announced earlier this week.
"We believe that in order to be competitive in the online news and information space, growth of both audience and page impressions will be the cornerstone of our success,"
Goldbloom said.
Last month, the Houston Chronicle
redesigned its Web site and also dropped the registration forms previously required to access news content. Chron.com is still requiring registration when users access the paper's archives, post comments in its forums, or sign up for personalized content.
Both papers cited reader complaints as one reason for the move.
The Star has also launched a new "
Webmaking" blog where readers are encouraged to provide feedback on everything from the site's design to its news coverage. The introductory post on the blog says TheStar.com is gearing up for a redesign in 2006, and suggestions from the blog will no doubt end up in the new site.
Though it usually takes three to make a trend, are we seeing the beginning of a move away from registration? E-mail us your thoughts on site registrations, both pro and con, and we'll reprint the best ones here.
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