Online Newspaper Registrations Up

REPORT:
More online newspapers are turning to registration, and more web surfers are complaining.

Imagine if a trip to the corner newsstand required handing over your name, address, age, and income to the cashier before you could pick up the daily newspaper.

That's close to the experience of many online readers, who must complete registration forms with various kinds of personal data before seeing their virtual newspaper.

The requirement has irked some readers and privacy advocates, led to the creation of Web sites to foil the system, and could be failing to provide the solid demographic information that the system was intended to capture.

Despite these concerns, a growing number of newspapers _ including The Philadelphia Inquirer in March and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in April _ have moved to online registration in the past year.

Industry representatives argue that because their Web readers get the same content as the paper-and-ink edition without paying for it, it's fair to ask them for personal information in exchange for access. They also say that collecting such data is becoming essential as the news business evolves.

However, some privacy groups are crying foul. Chris Hoofnagle of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C. says sites will be pushing for even more invasive disclosures as demographic data becomes muddied by peeved users who practice "self-defense" by registering themselves as 110-year-old surgeons from Bulgaria named Mickey Mouse.

When The Atlanta Journal-Constitution implemented online registration on April 12, a flurry of e-mails and calls from angry readers followed, ombudsman Mike King said.

The Philadelphia Inquirer started online registration in March, asking readers for e-mail, home address, gender and birth date. About 10 percent to 15 percent of the 300,000 registrations to date have bad e-mail addresses, said Fred Mann, general manager of Philly.com.

Mann said in an e-mail that the complaints generally fell into three categories: People who had technical problems, those who objected to giving out personal information, and those who "railed that we were pigs and were 'ruining the Internet!"'

BugMeNot.com is one Web site created to allow users access sites without registering. The site provides "communal" logins and passwords for sites including registration-required sites like those for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Los Angeles Times and now The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

FOR THE SAKE OF ARGUMENT:
It is unimaginable to me how talk radio hosts (such as me) gathered news and information prior to the Internet.

Each day as I log on, I thank my lucky stars to have such a wealth of information available with such ease. I read dozens of newspaper sites daily and have noted the increase in sites requesting registration. I am always momentarily frustrated when I’m forced to register as it cuts into my carefully budgeted show-preparation time.

Yet, I ultimately realize that I’m able to reap the benefits of work from hundreds of paid reporters, editors, photographers, and web designers all without a single dime out-of-pocket for me. When you think about it, it’s almost like I’m stealing the hard work of all these people.

The least I can do is register my information when prompted.

Truly,
Mickey Mouse
Bulgarian surgeon

I am very angry about online newspaper registration at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution because I was already a long-term paying subscriber when they started their online data mining operation. They have my money and that is all they are entitled to - not my personal data. Their smug Public Editor, Mike King, claims that the AJC's advertisers "need" personal information about readers. No, they don't NEED it, they just WANT it. He also claimed, in his June 19, 2004 column, that the AJC had feared a harsh backlash to online registration requirements but now they see that readers "understand" that they need data for their advertisers. Listen up, Mike: Hell no, we don't understand, and hell yes, you are going to get a harsh backlash. I e-mailed a complaint to him, but I am expecting zero response and zero action taken on my complaint because King appears to be less of an ombudsman than a cheerleader for the AJC advertising department. AJC and other data-greedy newspapers, watch out: you are alienating your paying subscribers, and all you will do with your intrusive program of personal data collection is drive us away. We have many other sources of news now.