DSO zet archief open voor bloggers

Chaim points me to a decision by Belgian newspaper De Standaard to open up its paying archives to selected bloggers so links don’t go dead once articles move off the front page into the subscriber-only area.

They’re making an effort to recognize weblogs which in itself is a very positive move. However, ignoring for the moment the fact that the blogger access system will probably be circumvented just like the current system has been, the whole pay-for-archives model just seems to be a dead end. The number of visits drop right through the floor in order to grab a little marketing data and prove that being forced to follow the media herd onto the web was a bad idea. This is an obvious oversimplification, but you get the idea.

Time to embrace the online world instead of being dragged by your feet into it.