A letter to Dean Singleton from a former employee who thinks his paywall ideas are crazy

As the newspaper industry continues to struggle, more and more attention is being paid to the paywall strategy being promoted MediaNews Group boss (and Denver Post publisher) Dean Singleton. He plans to start charging readers for lotsa online content at select MediaNews papers in California and Pennsylvania beginning in 2010...

By Michael Roberts

November 24, 2009

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As the newspaper industry continues to struggle, more and more attention is being paid to the paywall strategy being promoted MediaNews Group boss (and Denver Post publisher) Dean Singleton. He plans to start charging readers for lotsa online content at select MediaNews papers in California and Pennsylvania beginning in 2010 -- and in an interview with Bloomberg, he confirms that such articles will be blocked from Google News. While there are no plans to erect a paywall around Post pieces (yet), another big newspaper company -- A.H. Belo, owner of the Dallas Morning News -- may soon follow Singleton's lead.

All of which strikes blogger Rob Burgess as utter lunacy. In an item on the topic, Burgess, a former writer for a MediaNews paper, rips the approach as too little way too late in an open letter to Singleton. His prediction: a future without newspapers. Read his take below:

Dear Mr. Singleton,

You and the people that own these newspapers are completely at fault for the current state of the industry. Even though I am no longer under your employ I derive no satisfaction from this statement. I am the fourth generation of my family to work in newspapers.

You ruined everything in the beginning by starting with giving everything away for free. It has now been almost 15 years since the Internet broke wide and you're just NOW getting around to asking people to pay for your content? I don't blame people for not wanting to pay for it anymore, why should they? Who would pay for something they can get for free? That's foolishness.

If this is the best idea you people have come up with, we're looking at newspaperless future even faster than I thought.

Sincerely your former employee,

Rob Burgess

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Michael Roberts began his career with Westword in 1990 as music editor. In 1999, he took on a new role, full-time media reporter, as author of a column called The Message. In 2008, he became the lead writer for Westword's news blog, The Latest Word, a position he held until January 2023. Michael continues to freelance for Westword, covering everything from business to sports and the media; he also contributes to Jazziz, a national music magazine. He holds a bachelor's degree from what is now Colorado Mesa University and master's degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, and Northwestern University.

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