“No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.” — Samuel Johnson
Today, my newspaper, the Orange County Register, instituted a paywall on its website, www.ocregister.com.
That means, dear blognescenti, that you can no longer read the scribbles of your favorite music critic appearing on the Register’s website for free. That means that the links on this blog that send you to the Register’s site are no longer any good, unless you are a Register subscriber.
Right now you can sign up for a free seven-day trial subscription. You can also buy a “Day Pass” or, of course, subscribe.
The paywall is a long time coming, in my opinion. Contrary to what you often hear, information is not free. (In fact, over the last few years, it cost the jobs of half the newsroom at the newspaper.)
On the other hand, the paywall puts me in a bit of a spot with this blog. I doubt my readers outside of the county will want to pay for a subscription to the Register, though it is a vastly improved newspaper of late.
You will continue to be able to read this blog for free, however. This is my personal website, and not associated with the Register. It’s, like, a hobby. I’m a blockhead, I guess. As we move forward, I’ll attempt to write more blog-centric material for your reading pleasure.
Update: For what it’s worth, all Register online content 90 days or older will apparently be free, though that feature doesn’t seem to be working at the moment.
classical life 
Tim: To say that I’m disappointed with the draconian nature of your paper’s paywall (at least as you have described it) would be to understate the issue. I live outside of Orange County and neither read the OC Register nor have any real reason to do so other than your submissions. Even the NY Times allows you a handful of free items each month before charging you so it strikes me as somewhat arrogant of the Register to charge for everything. A couple of things off of a quick read, I notice that you have to sign in each day you read online; cookies apparently only work on a daily basis — extremely user unfriendly. Also, there’s nothing that indicates the cost of a day pass or an online subscription without filling in my personal information. Also very user unfriendly. I’ve enjoyed reading your material and am sorry that I will longer be doing that.