Do you still pick up the paper in the morning? Read the headlines while sipping your morning coffee? Or do you scroll through the news on your ipad or blackberry on your way into the office? Well if you’re like a lot of people these days then you probably get your news online.

Once for free but now… you might have to start paying for it.

The Worcester Telegram & Gazette joins a small but growing list of newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal and Newsday that already charge for some access to their websites. According to the Boston Globe, “the Worcester T&G will begin charging some online readers for locally produced news content on its website, www.telegram.com.”

Currently, all online content is available for free to T&G newspaper subscribers however nonsubscribers are only allowed to read as many as 10 staff-produced articles a month. If nonsubscribers wish to exceed that number, they must pay a fee. Only stories written by T&G staff will be subject to fees. All other content will remain free to all users, such as stories from news services, photo galleries, and videos.

How will these changes affect your readership? Will you pay for online content or go back to reading the newspaper the “old fashion” way?

Any company that is doling out the free product will be responsible for directing the blogger to follow the new guidelines.

The blogging community is outraged as the new guide applies to bloggers and reviewers and not news publications and magazines. The bloggers feel as though this is just one more attack on citizen journalism.

Most affected? Probably the Mommy Blogger (by the way, have you seen our whitepaper on the Social Media Mommy?)

Want to read more? check out Joan Anderman’s article on Boston.com.

On Sunday morning I woke up before the kids, grabbed my cup of coffee, sat at the kitchen table and read the Boston Globe section by section, folding and flipping while the tips of my fingers slowly turned gray… Wait wait wait, that isn’t exactly how it went. With mug in hand, I booted up my laptop, went to my favorites and clicked on www.boston.com.

Question # 1: How many other people do this?

 I frequent the site and noticed that Boston.com has both a Facebook page and Twitter account. As of Monday, they had 8,000+ fans and 10,835 Twitter followers. As everyone has seen lately, newspaper circulation has been dropping — to borrow from the eloquent Snoop Dog — “like it’s hot” and the Boston Globe is no exception and yes I read that online. See a related post I wrote about Boston.com possibly charging to read news.

Question #2: If you are a Facebook Fan of Boston.com and they start charging you to read or become a subscriber, will you still be a Fan?

For now, I’ll enjoy my coffee, Boston Globe and become your FB Fan. But it might be short lived!

For years my browser’s homepage has been http://www.boston.com/. Well not any more after reading this article The Boston Globe will soon begin charging for its website, publisher P. Steven Ainsley told the paper’s union bosses.

What will I do? Where will I find my news? (insert sarcasm here)

I used to get my “Breaking News” from Boston.com but for months I’ve been staying “in the know” from Twitter (and as everyone knows Twitterers know everything first. They even knew about Jeff Goldblum death before Jeff Goldblum did).

Actually maybe the Globe is onto something here. Post your comments if you are not willing to pay for this blog. Your silence will indicate your willingness to fork over your credit card number (I take all major CCs).

 So I guess I’ll be looking for a new homepage soon. Any recommendations?

Crazy Globe Homepage

The biggest article on the home page of the newspaper’s website is about Facebook Icons? BFD! Is there nothing else going on it the world today? What icon should the social networking giant use to indicate that the user has gone through a divorce?

Is this a newsworthy story or is the Globe jumping on the same bandwagon that keeps pictures of Brad Pitt and Michelle Obama on all the magazine covers and what made Perez Hilton famous?

Is it a  wonder that the NYTimes was looking to drop these guys? If you were a newspaper in the process of making some big concessions that will result in less for employees and less for its readers, would your biggest story on your online product be about cartoon pictures on Facebook? Maybe they’d be better off to write a story on how a floundering newspaper might use social media to better engage their audience. How an online  news site might salvage some integrity by not writing about online  relationship statuses.

[ In my head I am doing this SNL skit with Seth Meyers and Amy Poehher.]

I expect more from the Globe than this. I expect that they wouldn’t resort to campy attention grabbing nonsense stories to engage their readers.

Then they turn to me and ask that I sell this product to my clients. 

Really?

Social networks are important in this economy. The jobless are turning to their networks in search of new jobs. Do you have a Facebook page yet? Are you on Linked-in? Do you Twitter? Just today I was asked by one Linked-In connection to introduce her to another Linked-In connection as a job prospect. If you are jobless in a social media world – all of a sudden, the time you’ve spent answering the question “What are you doing right now?” is paying off. In an article in Monday’s Boston Globe, David Scharfenberg writes about how the jobless can kill time making friends in a social media world. But can it pay off? Maybe this is where all the recruitment advertising went. . .