Following a nearly two-year stint of pivoting to a digital subscription model, MyRGV.com, which serves as the website for The Monitor, The Brownsville Herald, and Valley Morning Star, has seemingly removed their paywall, potentially signaling a return to the “free” ad-supported each respective newspaper had for years.
Previously, casually perusing through the articles of MyRGV.com would prompt a popup stating how many free articles your device had remaining for the month; once the count hit 0, the popup would change to a call to action to subscribe to access the article.
This popup is, now, noticeably missing and after digging through the site, there really isn’t any mention of what AIM Media Texas, which owns all three major newspapers and the MyRGV site, intends to do to monetize their content.
The website, however, still offers visitors the chance to subscribe to their digital content for $9.99 a month or $13.87 a month to include 2 print editions a week. Access to the actual e-editions to the newspapers still requires a digital subscription.
Although the potential pivot to move MyRGV back to a “free” ad-supported model is a welcoming surprise, the financial squeeze being felt by both major and local journalism outlets is still a very real, and potentially, dangerous disease that can spell disaster for smaller communities in need of accessing adequate, local coverage.
Last August, AIM Media Texas announced that the three Valley newspapers would cut their print editions from five a week to a semi-weekly model, calling it a “digital pivot.” This actually followed a similar announcement of cutting print from seven editions to five just a few months prior, citing costs.
Irrespective of what AIM Media Texas does to tinker with their monetization model, strong local news coverage is paramount, especially in an area with as many corrupt politicians and leaders, all of whom need to be held accountable for their actions.
I’m not the answer and neither are the anonymous blogs that have infected Facebook that post nothing but salacious rumors with zero context and zero credibility. We need REAL journalists, not talking heads, to provide insight into our community, and more importantly, hold each other accountable.
If we don’t, get ready for more of whatever the fuck this is.
