but still shocked to see the results thus far.

I consider this site to have participants that are pretty well informed about the local scene.

Makes me wonder what the numbers of the broader market would look like.

There's something of a catch-22 going on here. There are frequently complaints posted here about KNS coverage, but it seems somewhat irrational or unreasonable to expect improvements to be made without resources to pay for them. As knoxviews is a self-declared progressive site, it would seem that most here would be at least familiar with the notion that people should be paid a decent wage for their labor. Of course, the easy counter to all that is to ask why anyone would pay for something they don't like.

Glorious 20/20 hindsight suggests that the KNS and every other media outlet should never have given away their work for free online in the first place.

Nonetheless, for all you folks who checked the "no print or online subscription" box, I would ask why? As a follow-up I would ask, what, if anything, would cause you to switch and check one of the other options?

Nonetheless, for all you folks who checked the "no print or online subscription" box, I would ask why? As a follow-up I would ask, what, if anything, would cause you to switch and check one of the other options?

The price-to-content ratio is too high. Personally, I'd only be interested in local news and local business news. I don't follow sports, I don't usually read stories about crime or car accidents, and the op-ed pages at KNS have never been particularly compelling. Their local coverage is spotty, inconsistent, and often poorly written.

For $11.99 a month (their charge for online only), I'd expect a much better product. I subscribe to the Kindle edition of the Washington Post for that same amount, and it comes with no advertisements. KNS would have to either be a lot better or a lot cheaper for me to consider it.

Looking over the website just now, I saw very few stories behind the paywall that I'd bother reading.

Any and all things Baumgartner and lack of reporting on what the KCSO knew or didn’t know, sole sourcing a story using a wife in the middle of a divorce, the feet dragging on any substantive regarding Pilot, the paper’s arrangement with Pilot, not taking up stories because the author may not like the source, no challenges to McIntyre’s plans or administration, the Chamber’s influence and because I’m cheap, the price.

There are more, but those are the top. And if an article really struck me as something as I needed to read, I would spend a buck, but it hasn’t happened yet.

...who said no and no, except Russ.

Nonetheless, for all you folks who checked the "no print or online subscription" box, I would ask why?

The content is not of sufficient quality to induce me to pay the asking price. Your mileage, of course, may vary, especially if you feel like speculating on the future quality of the KNS, a dubious enterprise at best. That's just not my particular mission, hermano, and subscription fees aren't just used to pay reporters. They get absorbed directly into the abdominal fat of a beast that is too torpid to chase prey anymore.

As a follow-up I would ask, what, if anything, would cause you to switch and check one of the other options?

I would buy an online subscription were it to be offered as a stand-alone option (sans cellulose), for $3.74 per month or less; and were the journalistic product indispensable, relevant, and of consistent and good quality (that is to say, worth paying for). The former is doable if unlikely. The latter is not going to happen in fourscore and seven years.

I would pay for the Shopper sooner than the KNS.

Nonetheless, for all you folks who checked the "no print or online subscription" box, I would ask why?

Sorry, but the price to get a digital version is just too steep for the quality of journalism practiced at the KNS. For many local stories, there are other outlets to get the same information. For national stories, well, let's just leave it at this: If I want to read the TEAGop's talking points, there are plenty of places to find that without paying $11.99 a month.

You seem to think that lack of paying the extortion subscription fee is why the KNS is in the state it's in. I would counter that if the editors (and those above them all the way up to the CEO of their parent company) practiced journalistic integrity, we would not see so many folks refusing to pay to read the news, digital or dead wood.

The worst thing you can possibly do in the business world.

"We can't practice real journalism because we don't have enough subscribers to pay for them."

Hogwash. KNS practiced below-average journalism long before the decline of print media. It's a death spiral, and it's fun to blame it on outside forces, but it's not all the fault of the inter-web-tube-things.

Look at Knoxnews- crowdsourced information that is, I dare say, generally more accurate than KNS on many subjects. It survives on online ads alone (AFAIK). And actually the online ads I see are better targeted to me than anything I get on other web sites.

The idea of paying anything for Greg J's absurd tripe rubs me the wrong way as well. I don't mind reading a conservative columnist. In fact, I like knowing what the other side thinks and having my views challenged. But he is so intellectually dishonest, I can't bear it, and I don't understand why KNS keeps him. There are better people out there.

I have been a subscriber to a newspaper for as long as I can remember. At one time, both the Journal and Sentinel. I can't really imagine not having a paper to read in the morning before work. Some days I read it all, some days there is nothing much worth reading. I get the paper 7 days a week. I view online also. We really need to support our local paper even it's not what we think it should be. Try not having "anything" to read about local news. That is much scarier than what we have.

I selected, no print or online subscription, but I consider my vote irrelevant.

The relevant votes are the twenty or so people who voted that they have online subscriptions. This is revenue that KNS wouldn't have received otherwise. Multiply that by $11 a week by the twenty or so Knoxviews members who purchase the online subscription that's roughly over $200 a week. Add in the 200 other subscribers /s and they are up to a whopping $2500 a week.

I won't ever pay for another subscription but I can understand their motive.

They know they are not losing advertising revenue on me because of the fact that if I won't pay for a subscription what are the chances that I would click on an ad.

than the KNS and the selective journalism practiced by the KNS is something that I will not support.

I'm happy to support businesses which do not advertise in the KNS and I'm quick to tell vendors and merchants that despite their advertising in the KNS, I have chosen to support their business. There are lots of others similarly situated, perhaps not articulating their decisions in that word count.

Just because a person is plying their craft in this community does not necessarily mean that their wares, goods, works, or media have a marketplace, particularly when it comes to a consuming public, which like myself, have plenty of other options available for information, more accurate, more reliable, without a programmed agenda like the KNS.

I would pay for the Shopper sooner than the KNS.

Our KNS subscription now includes home delivery of a Shopper, which makes me very happy. I don't think quality of writing is nearly as important as reports being thorough and complete. I'm always amazed at how much goes on at commission meetings that goes unmentioned in the newspaper. Silence is always the worst kind of reporting.

As I don't work for the KNS, I don't have any customers to blame. I think you have misunderstood my intent. I am merely posing a question because I am curious.

When you say "Look at Knoxnews," I presume you meant "Knoxviews." According to what our host has mentioned elsewhere, this site's ads minimally support operating costs, but no one is making a living from it. (We should thank Mr. Neal for supporting this site, because if he were to get too busy with something else, or simply bored with this, the lights would quickly wink out over here.)

As for crowdsourced information, yes, there's a certain value to it, definitely. It is not, however, a substitute for what the KNS ideally should be. While this site provides the opportunity for rapid dissemination of information, there is little in the way of editorial filtering or control. Aside from extreme hate speech or libel, pretty much anything someone wants to post will be here for all to see. Others can pipe up to make corrections or argue points, but that's not the same thing as proper journalistic research, fact-checking and editorial control, nor should it be. This site serves a different purpose, in my view. Knoxviews should no more be a substitute for the local daily paper than should the Daily Show be a substitute for the Evening News. Both substitutions do happen, but that's probably not a good thing.

For me, when the KNS put up the paywall, it gave me some hope that there would be less focus on the comments cesspool over there, and more on the reporting that's supposed to occur above those comments. It has indeed had the effect of dialing back the comments, but the jury's still out on the other part.

"Nonetheless, for all you folks who checked the "no print or online subscription" box, I would ask why?"

It's easier to go to the Chamber website or the Blue Streak to get the "news".

It ain't news. It's PR. Why do you pay for PR when it's free?

The real joy of this site is that inaccurate information is quickly sussed out, confronted, and corrected (or dismissed as crap publicly). It's got enough participation from righties (and enough people passionate enough about accurate information, right or left), that if I posted an article about how Dick Cheney bleeds puppies to revitalize himself with their blood, I'd get called out on it in about, oh, 15 minutes.

Are substitutes bad if they get the job done? I don't think so. Perhaps it's the evolution of news. I'm glad TDS takes on Obama now and then, and doesn't go the propoganda route of Faux News. MSNBC can be slanted, but they will still give reasonable time to conservative guests on most shows, and give them a chance to have their say. Not every show, but most. I wasn't a big Joe Scarborough fan, but I have to say he provides a good left-right balance in his show. Still, MSNBC is hampered by the need for ratings, so they fall into the 'screaming makes for good TV' trap.

I have to add- the work that Randy and the KV community does to keep this place clean, reasonable, and still inviting to opposing viewpoints is pretty miraculous in this day and age. Let's keep it up!

for a modest fee would have been my choice. but since the price was only a $1 more for home delivery - how does that make sense??? - I'm finding ways to use the darn stuff, like mulching my garden. And I'll make gift bags out of the heavier-stock comics. I am, however, enjoying the Sudoku and word puzzles again. I like to start my day with a self-test on number and word recognition skills...