I noticed Cyclingnews added a paywall for “full” access to their articles. Any good suggestions for alternatives? Seems that Velonews has something similar, maybe not quite as restrictive though.
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You get better “cycling news” in three places.
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Here - For everything
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Reddit /Velo - Well it’s Reddit but despite that there’s some good discussion.
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Reddit /Peloton - All things Pro Cycling. Half the time they post articles from the magazines but the discussion on the subreddit are better anyway.
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I like Cyclingtips. They say they have a paywall but I’ve never encountered it. My ad blocker seems to block their big banner ad at the top.
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As far as I’m aware its only a limit on how many articles you can read for free.
Ways to get around this:
Open the articles via a link on facebook. You can go through multiple article’s once youre on cyclingnews and not have to go back and find thr next article.
Open a browser tab in private mode. Clearing cookie’s probably would work too or opening in another browser.
Yea it still allows you to open the articles but it takes what used to be a full page and shortens it to about 2 paragraphs. Thanks for the work arounds
Paywalls on that stuff drove me away.
I used to check the various cycling pages a few times a week to see if there was anything good. There has never been enough solid content or quality writing to pay actual Darth Bucks ™ for. So I don’t look any longer.
For context, I used to subscribe to VeloNews back when it was black and white and came in the snail mail.
Your friend,
-Darth Grumpyious
The content is not free to produce…it costs time and money and companies deserve to be paid for it.
Back in the day, most of us subscribed to different magazines to get out content and no one complained. The worst thing media companies did was start putting content on the internet for free. It has trained a whole generation of people (not just cyclists, but everyone) that they should get their news for free.
If everyone keeps using workarounds, there will be less and less content to consume. Pick a service and subscribe.
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I pay for Cyclingtips. I’ve been reading for free for a decade. Worth the price to me.
Cyclingnews wasn’t even worth it when it was free in my opinion.
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Me too. James’ content alone is worth the price for me. I just hope Outside doesn’t ruin a good thing.
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Those magazines were also ad supported and those companies sold our addresses so that other companies could solicit us. They were also really cheap, probably cheaper than the cost of printing and mailing.
If the ad model is broken, I have no problem paying for content when that day comes. These companies are also up against twitter and free, ad supported, youtube content.
My biggest problem with all these new paywall initiatives are the public radio like appeals. Sob story pitches like “we deserve to get paid” or “support our journalism”, blah, blah, blah are pure BS.
Cyclingtips or Velonews isn’t a bunch of cycling geeks sitting around trying to save a sinking ship of a business. They are owned by Outdoor Inc, a media giant backed by venture capital money. They seem to have a strategy of buying up everything and then throwing up paywalls. Maybe it will work for them?
In the future I may decide to pay for Cyclingtips but I’ll know full well that I’m sending my money to a corporation not making a contribution so that James Huang can keep his job.
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Well, that day has arrived….the ad model is broken. The revenue generated by internet ads is nowhere near what print ads generated. Go flip through any magazine and see how many different companies advertised vs. how many you see on a website.
Journalists deserve to be pad for their work, period. I’m sure if people showed up at your job and demanded you provide your services for free, you’d tell them to pound sand.
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It’s not clear that that day has arrived.
You are just buying into their song and dance. The journalists are being paid by their employer. That song and dance is coming from big money corporations and venture capitalists that think they can monetize this space for a big pay day. Maybe they can. Maybe they can’t. It’s not yet clear.
https://www.axios.com/outside-funding-from-sequoia-1acc7732-7e6e-4d19-9f87-ce898376ca84.html
I think it’s going to be a tough fight for paywall money. Pocket buys every property and sets up paywalls. They are playing monopoly. Buyers might go elsewhere instead of paying up. New sites might pop up to furnish racing news and bicycle content under an ad model. Maybe most consumers will just keep grazing at the free content and start looking at podcasts and youtube to supplement their 5 free articles?
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No, my daughter is a journalist. I have a pretty good idea of what I am talking about.
You want content, pay for it.
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Yea I wish I hadn’t asked. Just looking for what other people are using. Thanks
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Problem is, many of these subscriptions still show ads (or attempt to) and harvest (resell) user data, clicks, engagement with promotional content etc.
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And so do video subscriptions and a whole host of other services you currently use and pay for today.
I’m a helluva lot more concerned about the data harvesting from Google, Apple , FB and others than I am about CyclingTips.
Consider a VPN. Not free but the benefits of a VPN service distribute to many, many websites & activities. If you have a good VPN you won’t be limited to a certain number of articles on Cyclingnews…plus you’ll get all the other benefits of a good VPN.
Your mileage may vary, of course! I’m only saying it’s something you can consider.
As soon as websites do this, I block them from my feed and never see them again
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I sometimes use this website. Not sure if it will help anyone else?
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Not sure of your point but I’ll play along. Of course you should be wary of those tech giants that have advertising as their primary revenue source (sans Apple which has hardware as the primary). My point was, even paying the subscription fee for access the user is still subjected to tracking pixels, cookies, an advertising-lite model, etc. At that point the content provider is double dipping, receiving payment from the user while still “using” the users clicks and reading behaviour for ad revenue. Of course. A savvy internet user would never allow any of those tracking techniques to track them, but the average user (read: someone who sees ads while watching YouTube videos) is not so lucky.
It’s kind of like location services with Facebook. If you disable it in FB, they’re still tracking your location, they’re just not sharing it with you any more. But I digress, I can’t figure out why in 2022 any self respecting adult would still have a Facebook account.