Flounders/Jones haters unite! PennLive.com is going to require paid subscriptions for Penn State football content. Do we want to spend money to gain access to those two, I ask?
Verily, newspapers are — and long have been — struggling to survive in an increasingly digital world. The subscription model bumps up the bottom line when ad revenues wane. That’s their problem, not mine. I can do without those putzes, but where do I go for news when others hop on the subscription bandwagon? (Many others have done so already. A sign of the Apocalypse will be the Altoona Mirror heading in that direction).
I gave up The Wall Street Journal earlier this year. The digital subscription was upwards of $450 per annum. Now they’re crying to get me back with exciting discount offers. I ain’t budging.
Am I just a cheapskate who cannot adapt to the realities of modern “news” dissemination? It was OK to pay when you gave the paper boy a couple bucks a week and got one of those tear-off little fingernail-sized receipts. Yeah, but back then, you got straight news and if you didn’t like the editorial opinions of one rag, you could easily switch to another with impunity.
Now, they try to lock you in by front-loading the damn thing. You switch, you lose.
OK, end of today’s rant.
Oh, by the way…
The Nittany Lions were ranked #15 in the AP pre-season poll. (I didn’t get this news reading PennLive.com or The Wall Street Journal).
Obviously, pre-season polls mean nothing. But doesn’t it just grab your chain and give it a tug when you see the favoritism among sportswriters (now available by subscription!) played toward tOSU and Michigan, who they placed at #5 and #7, respectively?
Other Big Ten programs received disrespect similar to PSU: Moo U (#18), BadgerBadgerBadger (#19), The Sockeyes (#20), and Nebraska (#24). Nebraska? NEBRASKA? They haven’t been ranked in the pre-season since 2014. They were 4-8 in their first year under Scott Frost — the fair-haired favorite of the sportswriters who worked miracles at UCF (#17) — how da hell do these clowns expect such a huge turn-around?
Meanwhile, no mention of the mid-tier and bargain basement teams in the B10, of course. I think Purdue could be a dark horse. Penn State plays the Boilermakers on home turf at St. Joe Memorial Stadium at Beaver on October 10.
So, what’s YOUR outlook for the Big Ten this year?
