Newspapers, Tear Down That Wall!

About once a week, I click a link from Romenesko or somewhere to read a vaguely interesting-sounding on a site I'd not otherwise visit—and I hit a registration wall. Why? When it happens at a publication I'd never otherwise visit, I instantly lose interest in the story, and that site has lost a slam-dunk viral visitor. Not good.

There are very few non-newspaper sites out there that still put registration walls up to keep potential readers from content and advertising. But newspaper (and some magazine) sites still cling to registration, for some reason. Registration for participation in discussions or user-generated content is one thing. But in this day and age, it's just ridiculous that newspaper sites are still hiding their content behind registration walls. Enough already.

What on earth are they using that registration info for? To customize the user experience? I think not. To target advertising? Yeah, right. To solicit print subscriptions from people who live thousands of miles away? Don't put it past them. To gather e-mail addresses for later spamming? Unfortunately, more often than not.

What registration really is doing is keeping readers away from content and advertising. And that's just stupid. (It also doesn't do much to help your search-engine visibility.) If this were paid registration, I'd understand—I happen to think that newspaper sites are missing a huge bet by not charging for access to some content, but that's another rant for another time. Otherwise, newspaper site registration is just silly. It's a throwback to a bygone time, many years ago, when newspapers didn't really understand the Web and the circulation people thought it would be a good idea to collect reader names and e-mails, to somehow replicate the offline subscription experience online (how, it was never clear, but never mind).

Hey newspapers: If you're not using registration information for the readers' benefit—targeted content or advertising, or better yet, for content creation—open up your sites like every other site on the Web. Otherwise, you're just driving readers away. And it's bad enough that that's happening in print, isn't it?