Dear Chief Secretary to the Treasury,
I'm afraid to tell you there's no money left.
Signed, Liam Byrne

(Outgoing Labour Chief Secretary to the Treasury. May 2010)
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Sunday 13 June 2010

Times gone by

Huh!

Mrs Rigby tried to have a look at the "Times and Sunday Times" website, but instead got a message telling her she could sign up for a 'Free June Preview' - even though we're almost half way through the month. Clever sort of trick that, isn't it? Call it a whole month when it's only a bit more than a fortnight.

After June it'll cost either £1 for 24 hours or £2 a week to access the site. They tell Mrs R that £2 is
... less than the cost of a cup of coffee.
We Rigbys rarely, if ever, visit a coffee shop so it'd be nice to challenge that on the basis that a cup of coffee at Rigby Towers costs considerably less than £2.

But who cares? The people at The Times don't seem to.

So, having already given up on the Financial Times because we refuse to register, it looks as if we won't be bothering with The Times or Sunday Times any more either - except when we go to the library.
 ....

6 comments:

Witterings from Witney said...

The fact that the Times now equates itself to a cup of coffee - A sign of the times?

Captain Ranty said...

I see this as the beginning of the end for the dead tree press. It was inevitable.

I certainly won't be paying for "cut 'n paste" news.

I will rely, as ever, on the opinions of my fellow bloggers.

Bloggers (most of them) have no axe to grind. No advertisers to appease. No editor to please. So you get a goodly dose of the truth.

Which is how I like my news.

CR.

nonny mouse said...

Would you spend £2 on coffee when there are free beverages everywhere else? I hear that the BBC do a nice brew.

Catosays said...

I already buy The Times in its dead tree press version, so, I can view the website for free.

But, as you say, people aren't going to fork out £2 when they can go elsewhere. It'll die a death ere long.

Ed Moran said...

The Times havehad this info on the site for a couple of weeks already.

Mrs Rigby said...

@ Ed.
Have visited The Times daily, this was the first time I'd been asked to register to enter the site.
Maybe they were running two sites, because
http://www.timesplus.co.uk/welcome/index.htm = register to read

http://www.thetimes.co.uk = older site that now automatically redirects.