Sometimes I come across such stupid things that I can’t help but just laugh at them. They are so idiotic that I can’t help but just laugh at the idiocy of the whole thing. Take for example the El Paso Times pretending to be a newspaper. It is no secret that they are up for sale and that revenues are on a continued spiral down towards oblivion. Their response? Oh, it is not to produce a better quality newspaper or to even report relevant stuff. No, it is to get you to pay for their “quality” reports.
Back in November of 2013, the newspaper announced that it was going to put up a paywall to force us to pay for reading their content online. They told you that you could read a few articles and then you would have to pay a stipend to them in order to read more of their material. It was supposed to be a revenue source for their operation.
Except that in their ineptitude, they have done nothing more than to annoy readers and implement a system that could not generate any money for them because they clearly do not understand the Internet and how the news media has evolved through social media.
Today, most individuals get their news from social media channels. Even the El Paso Times, in their ineptitude, acknowledged this when they finally announced the paywall and told everyone, don’t worry it won’t interfere with your reading when it is shared via social media channels. In other words, you could bypass the paywall by reading stuff your network shared with you by clicking on the social media link.
As a matter of fact, almost all of my local newspaper reading derived from social media and thus I forgot about the paywall. Except that today I was reminded about it. As, I was researching the municipal identification issue for tomorrow’s post, a message popped up telling me I needed to allow cookies for my session.
I keep my cookies off on my browser as a standard practice.
What made me laugh is that I immediately realized that it didn’t matter because the article was still readable. All I had to do was scroll up above the popup and continue reading where I left off.
Had this been one of my clients, I would have set up the “hey pay me” feature in such a way as to encourage the reader to pay my client. I would have blurred the content just enough to keep the captive audience intrigued enough to pay the fee. Instead, the local paper’s answer to generating more revenues is too make it convenient for the reader to ignore their plea for payment.
I realize I should not be giving free consulting advice to the newspaper but, hey, their management’s incompetence has no equal and thus it probably wouldn’t make any sense to them anyway. After all, they have the city keeping them afloat as long as the press releases keep coming out.
I gave up with the Times. If I want news, I read other publications. If I need a good laugh, then I read the Times. It’s almost as funny reading Beetle Bailey with General Halftrack. The General that is always waiting for that one important call to report for duty at the Pentagon. Of course, the call never comes. Actually reminds me of some of the half wits in office today. With their self inflated ego, they sit around always waiting for the call to report for duty in Washington or Dallas or flashing their dental work on the front page of the times. They are totally irrevelant in Dallas ! Watch out Pravda, the Times is adopting your methods for publishing the party line. That might explain why Muench is still at the Times only now he is fully retired. Is he the central El Paso committee political commissar ? Here’s a new for me, you retire and return the next day to resume the same duties as before. Whew!
Enough for now, my mind is spinning from reading so much spin in the Times !
Now the ID card issue. 10,000 signatures? And how many are from Mexico or uninvited? How many are actually alive? How many are registered voters?
The whole thing is a joke. Every adult in Mexico has a voters ID with photo. Required by law! That should be sufficient for routine services. Now someone explain, Mexico is financially worse off than the US, but yet their adults have no problem with obtaining ID. Here in the U.S. people require ID to attend school, receive insurance and medical services, open a bank account, get a loan, get. D/L, well you get the picture. We are a 100 times richer than Mexico and other foreign countries and people afford to get a “free” state ID or never had one. Really ? The homeless? They’re always going to need ID because they are always traveling and live wherever. So getting an El Paso ID is going to be a regular service for them. The elderly don’t have ID? That’s means no house, no car, no benefits of any kind. It’s anyone’s guess as to how they managed to reach the golden years. Too far to travel to get a “free” state ID? Come on, last time I took a road trip I didn’t see wagon trains, but plenty of buses, trucks, cars, motorcycles. While it is possible to be without family surely there are friends or agencies to assist.
Pure and simple, this to is open the door for invited residents to receive a d/l. They don’t even pay for insurance with a foreign d/l or drive with one anyway.