What's Up With the Buffalo Blitz Paywall?

[CommonCents]

6. Lebron James “pantsing” the Raptors. Long live Ryan.

[stony]

27 minutes ago, justnzane said:

to be fair, the morning bagel and coffee gives more fulfillment than a Sully article usually does (except when he is eating crow for being massively wrong)

RE: Sully.  That's a fair point.  But I find it very cathartic reading a Sully column while taking my morning poop.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

51 minutes ago, justnzane said:

to be fair, the morning bagel and coffee gives more fulfillment than a Sully article usually does (except when he is eating crow for being massively wrong)

 

That's actually a point I made to Josh Barnett.  I think I would probably enjoy a lot of the content behind TBN paywall, but they do have a couple of sports columnists who were once insightful and sometimes entertaining, but who have fallen into a pattern of putting unremitting and negative "spin" onto everything (and they too seldom admit they are wrong) 

 

I would actually pay to avoid this - but I don't have to.  All I have to do is not pay for it

[dpberr]

I don't care if the Buffalo News has a paywall mostly because most off the news is already out there with other sources reporting it and I can only read so many talking head opinions on the same issues. Take away the opinion pieces and they don't have a lot of unique content. Opinion and hot takes aren't news to me.

 

As for 2BD, I've changed my bookmarks to hit the forum instead of the front page. I too find the numerous paywall articles tedious, so I skip the front page altogether and read Bills news from a variety of sources using the Google News tab.

[BadLandsMeanie]

28 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

 

Indeed, and Josh periodically has been by to solicit input as to what folks would like to see.  Much appreciated.

 

Yes. I wonder through, has he done anything with the input here gave him about what they would like to see?

[Not at the table Karlos]

13 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

That's actually a point I made to Josh Barnett.  I think I would probably enjoy a lot of the content behind TBN paywall, but they do have a couple of sports columnists who were once insightful and sometimes entertaining, but who have fallen into a pattern of putting unremitting and negative "spin" onto everything (and they too seldom admit they are wrong) 

 

I would actually pay to avoid this - but I don't have to.  All I have to do is not pay for it

I agree with this. When they had ty dunne I would buy a paper almost every day. I refuse to support the writers they have now. How jerry Sullivan is still employed by them is insane.

1 minute ago, dpberr said:

I don't care if the Buffalo News has a paywall mostly because most off the news is already out there with other sources reporting it and I can only read so many talking head opinions on the same issues. Take away the opinion pieces and they don't have a lot of unique content. Opinion and hot takes aren't news to me.

 

As for 2BD, I've changed my bookmarks to hit the forum instead of the front page. I too find the numerous paywall articles tedious, so I skip the front page altogether and read Bills news from a variety of sources using the Google News tab.

Same here. 

[BadLandsMeanie]

39 minutes ago, stony said:

RE: Sully.  That's a fair point.  But I find it very cathartic reading a Sully column while taking my morning poop.

do you have an internet ready toilet?

[NoSaint]

1 hour ago, BuffaloRush said:

 

People whinging about starting new threads never ceases to get old.  

 

Thinking of starting another new thread on it? Or what are your rousing 4-5 topics du jour?

Edited May 6, 2018 by NoSaint

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

I'm a bit confused on their website, when I clicked on an article link it took me to the adblocker notice page.  That page listed the price as $6.00 per month, I've been paying $2.99 per month, is the price going up or is that for full BN access.  Will it still be $2.99 for BNBlitz only?

[Cripple Creek]

15 minutes ago, BadLandsMeanie said:

Yes. I wonder through, has he done anything with the input here gave him about what they would like to see?

Perhaps you could search for his email address, or maybe he even has an account here? If you're able to find either of those you could direct your question directly to him.  A good starting point would be his name, Josh Barnett, I believe.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

13 hours ago, aceman_16 said:

I would get my neighbors BN in print when he was done for bird cage liner and an amazing job cleaning windows - no streaks!!

 

This surprises me. 

 

Since our neighbor has 3 parrots and my kid petsits, we have plenty experience with bird cage liner and let's just say, I wouldn't touch that stuff much less smear it about on glass!

 

[Ol Dirty B]

13 hours ago, EasternOHBillsFan said:

There isn't going to BE a local paper if they continue to hire sh***y writers like Sully and Bucky who insult their readers. Bucky's defense of Brandon's misconduct yesterday was particularly odious. It has gone downhill so much I am surprised they have the audacity to try and get money out of people for the worthless tripe they give readers. Almost little value and the complaints are totally valid!!!

 

You know people buy the paper for other reasons than the sports section.

 

I never buy the paper for sports. 

[BadLandsMeanie]

7 minutes ago, Cripple Creek said:

Perhaps you could search for his email address, or maybe he even has an account here? If you're able to find either of those you could direct your question directly to him.  A good starting point would be his name, Josh Barnett, I believe.

Well, not to moan about the past but since you had to jump in with your suggestion here...

 

The last time he asked for emails of suggestions I did email him. He didn't answer. Notice that he says he will read everything he gets. He doesn't say he will respond with even a "thank you for your suggestion". He didn't respond, but he did not say he would.  No harm no foul. But I'm not about to do it again

 

So, in response to your suggestion: Thank you for your suggestion. I will not be implementing it at this time, but I do thank you for your input. 

 

 

Edited May 6, 2018 by BadLandsMeanie

[Cripple Creek]

7 minutes ago, BadLandsMeanie said:

Well, not to moan about the past but since you had to jump in with your suggestion here...

 

The last time he asked for emails of suggestions I did email him. He didn't answer. Notice that he says he will read everything he gets. He doesn't say he will respond with even a "thank you for your suggestion". He didn't respond, but he did not say he would.  No harm no foul. But I'm not about to do it again

 

So, in response to your suggestion: Thank you for your suggestion. I will not be implementing it at this time, but I do thank you for your input. 

 

 

I did receive a response to my one email inquiry.  I didn't agree with it, but the answer was thoughtful.  Perhaps you should try again.

 

If that doesn't work for you then you could try a direct question here via the reply function.

 

Or you can continue to B&M to no one in particular.

Edited May 6, 2018 by Cripple Creek

[BadLandsMeanie]

10 minutes ago, Cripple Creek said:

I did receive a response to my one email inquiry.  I didn't agree with it, but the answer was thoughtful.  Perhaps you should try again.

 

If that doesn't work for you then you could try a direct question here via the reply function.

 

Or you can continue to B&M to no one in particular.

See? You go a roundabout way to express that you were irritated. One might get the impression that you sir, are not a genuine sort of personality! 

 

And that you can't look, read and understand. Because if you Looked + Read + Understood the post that you quoted, you would have realized that I was replying to Hapless. 

 

Run back and look and see! Then you came in and suggested that I direct my response to Josh Barnett instead, not  Hapless.

 

That wouldn't make any sense, right? There is no sense in what you suggested. So let's get this cleared up right now so we, and the thread, can move forward in a positive direction.

 

Go back and look, and read, and understand, and you will know why I did not send my reply to Hapless,  to Josh Barnett in an email. 

Edited May 6, 2018 by BadLandsMeanie

[Cripple Creek]

5 minutes ago, BadLandsMeanie said:

See? You go a roundabout way to express that you were irritated. One might get the impression that you sir, are not a genuine sort of personality! 

 

And that you can't look, read and understand. Because if you Looked + Read + Understood the post that you quoted, you would have realized that I was replying to Hapless. 

 

Run back and look and see! Then you came in and suggested that I direct my response to Josh Barnett instead, not  Hapless.

 

That wouldn't make any sense, right? There is no sense in what you suggested. So let's get this cleared up right now so we, and the thread, can move forward in a positive direction.

 

Go back and look, and read, and understand, and you will know why I did not send my reply to Hapless,  to Josh Barnett in an email. 

I'm not the one irritated, I assure you I understand that.  Since you feel wronged by TBN and Barnett you can try a direct approach or you can try an indirect one. 

[PromoTheRobot]

I subscribe to papers (online) that I think are worth it. I won't subscribe to the Buffalo News Blitz because I won't support certain writers on their staff.

 

It's not just Bills and Sabres coverage. Bucky Gleason wrote a vaguely racist hatchet piece on UB's new AD because Gleason felt they should have hired a local guy. I wrote Barnett and cited that article and Bucky as examples why I won't subscribe.

Edited May 6, 2018 by PromoTheRobot

[Just Joshin']

4 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

I subscribe to papers (online) that I think are worth it. I won't subscribe to the Buffalo News Blitz because I won't support certain writers on their staff.

 

It's not just Bills and Sabres coverage. Bucky Gleason quote a vaguely racist hatchet piece on UB's new AD because Gleason felt they should have hired a local guy. I wrote Barnett and chief that article and Bucky as an example why I won't subscribe.

I agree - I pay much more for other sites online content but the BN content has not been worthy.  if I want negative comments on the Bills I can come here.

 

The ad blocker is another reason.  If a free site blocks if you if you are using an ad blocker that makes sense.  That is their business model.  if I am paying I do and you stop my ad blocker, then stop.  Either make it free or charge what it costs to support itself.

[JoshBarnett]

Well, here are I am again. ... First, I did read everything I got. Second, I did not respond individually to every single one because I took the questions that I got and rolled them into a long response that I posted on this site. In many cases, I thought there was more value in responding to them publicly than individually so the entire community could read them. If BadLandsMeanie or others were offended by not getting an individual response, I apologize and will take that as a lesson learned moving forward. 

 

I also want to address the question as to what I did with the feedback that I received and is appreciated. I did one solicitation when we started and then another at the beginning of the offseason.

 

* We were asked about doing a fan column and having someone on this board write for us. Kelly The Dog wrote almost the entire season and beyond and was really great to have aboard.

* We were asked about gambling. We brought on Marc Lawrence, a nationally recognized handicapper, to write about stat trends, betting trends and the line in the Bills game each week.

* We were asking about off the field work and charitable things that players do. We wrote about Vontae Davis commitment to foster care, Lorenzo Alexander's foundation and have a stories in the works about one of the new signee's off field works among others. 

* We were asked about velocity as it relates to Josh Allen. We talked to myriad experts and evaluators in the league about how it's important to not fall in love with how hard a player throws. 

* We were asked about what happens on a site visit when a player comes to OBD. We wrote story and that story was referenced in a thread on this board. 

 

Those are just a starting point off the top of my head. 

 

The point was made here and in previous thread that you can get the "same" Bills information elsewhere. I think we continue to evolve and that statement -- if it were true at the outset -- is less true now and will be less true next week and next month and so. Remember, I started the first day of the season. We are in a daily conversation internally about how to add value to this product -- on the content side, on the promotion site (for those of you who live in the Buffalo area, we had a pre-draft event at the Buffalo History Museum) and on the user experience side. Look at the magnitude and depth of our draft coverage -- we were the only non-TV local media outlet in Buffalo in Dallas for the draft; we did in-depth features every week the last Sunday in January through the Sunday before the draft on either the quarterback prospects or the means in which quarterbacks are evaluated; we did features on every Bills pick (and by features, I mean more than we watched some tape and gave the pick a grade). The undrafted free agents and rookie camp invites have come out from various sources on Twitter. We are actually telling you something about them. Did you see the story about the Penn State linebacker who is coming to Bills rookie camp and putting his admission to medical school on hold and how he and his wife have started a worldwide cause to help young people get shoes after their mission trips to Honduras? And just recently, we did a long piece on Josh Allen's arrival in Buffalo and talked to people who have known him for years about the tweet controversy; we have another Allen project in the works. We did a story on the fan travelling the world with a Bills flag and the world landmarks where he raised the flag. Ryan Groy could be the starting center on this team and we told you how his father's death in a snowmobile accident at Ryan's bachelor party has shaped him and how he was the one who walked his sister down the aisle at her wedding.  Look at the coverage we did related to Russ Brandon this week with more to come. We have so many things on the drawing board for minicamp. We already are planning our season preview.

 

Here's what we're not doing with some exceptions: We're not cutting and pasting someone else's mock draft and calling that a post behind the paywall. We're not assembling tweets and expecting you to pay for it. Anything that is readily available from other sources is free on our site. 

 

Let me also add some context here: There are two subscription plans at the BN -- one is overall for the entire site and one is for Blitz. We recognize that some people, especially those outside the area, might not be interested in local news but care deeply about the Bills. We didn't -- and don't expect -- those Bills fans to pay a higher fee when they don't want a large portion of the product. So we created Blitz at a reasonable price point for that audience. We are among the few -- if not only -- traditional news organization doing that. Look around at the paywall structure for other news outlets in other markets, and these are for any story -- Boston Globe 2 free stories per month; New York Times, 10 free stories per 7 days; Minneapolis Star-Tribune, 5 free stories per 7 days; Detroit, 10 per 7 days; Phoenix, 10 per 7 days; Green Bay, 10 per 7 days; Nashville, 10 per 7 days. Those are just a few examples. 

 

So the elephant in the room again continues to be the disdain that some of you have for members of my staff. I am not going to be able to reverse years of animus in weeks or months or maybe even years. But I would urge you to look at the totality of the product, the quality of the work being done by our team. No one is covering the Bills in the way and with the depth that we are. We are using the expertise our staff has and then adding in the access that we have to players, coaches and people around the league to provide a complete a picture as we can. 

 

This reply ended up longer than I intended, but hopefully you can tell how passionate I am about what I do and how committed we are to getting this right and serving the Bills audience in the best way that we can. 

 

As always, I am available to answer questions here or via email, jbarnett@buffnews.com. 

 

Thank you for reading, Josh

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 6, 2018 by JoshBarnett

[BadLandsMeanie]

19 minutes ago, Cripple Creek said:

I'm not the one irritated, I assure you I understand that.  Since you feel wronged by TBN and Barnett you can try a direct approach or you can try an indirect one. 

Dude. You can't read. I had written " No harm no foul". That expression means precisely that I do not feel wronged.

 

I keep having to answer responses from you that are not about what I wrote, and that don't make sense. 

 

So please let me stop now. Thank you.