Behind the Paywall

The Calgary Sun started to put online content behind a paywall starting December 4th. I had no idea they were going to do this, but then, I'm just a regular freelancer so I don't have access to the inner workings of the Sun Media empire.

The actual deal is you get 20 free "Sun+" views before you have to pay, but some people find they use them up pretty fast, especially if you click on links on Twitter. You may not even know you're using them when you click.

Being a freelancer in a unique situation at the Calgary Sun (even though I've been a weekly feature for the past 15 years) I'm able to post my own columns here a day after they come out in the Calgary Sun. No paywall - no begging buttons. Just free electrons for you to enjoy.

The Calgary Sun has been archiving my columns on their columnist page so you can browse backwards, but that's is now behind the paywall too. While they were doing the archiving work for me (and missing the occasional one as their Internet elves fell asleep on the job), I was - let's be honest - lazy and let them do it.

No more.

Now I will create my own archive here on my blog. Because the Calgary Sun has what is called "first publication rights" and my column generally appears on Saturday in the actual paper, I'll post here on Sunday as soon as I get a coffee into me (and only if I think the column is any good- I reserve the right to not post if I think it sucks that week).

Thanks for reading,

Stephen

PS - more free columns here from 1997-2003