Interesting discussion on this yesterday "The Media Show" a BBC radio slot.
Many publishers are moving to social media sites (Huffingto Post speaker was on) and Apple News etc as that is where the young audience is getting news and following links, web home pages are slowly dying. One speaker likened it to traditional newsprint: Like print output our site is still there but as the users die off so will it, strange to be talking like that of a medium that still feels, to me at least, new. Their long term horizon was 2/3 years !!
I read the privacy document on the Apple News App, well some of it, I have not signed up.
The "Daily Mirror" (Part of the Murdoch empire) tabloid UK paper was behind a paywall, the only way to go, no alternative, they said last year or so. No longer.
I understand the response from the owners here to making the Forum section free to user, the response from the user base was clear. What I think will happen is those users who value that section are appeased but the majority of them will not sign up to pay.
I understand the imperative to generate a return but it's the value placed on new content, what is there now will still be free from the archive sites if you know where to look, so its only going to be new content, and the videos, available to subscribers, and tenuous "special offers".
The web democratised access and publishing now it's heading back to large monopolies who don't need a paywall to thrive.
I wish the site well.
PS Will removing posts now remove them from the web archives?