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10 reasons to not complain about paying for online news

It was the kind of coincidence Alanis Morissette sings songs about. Less than a week after my last blog entry , which talked about the increased cost of an online subscription, our website experienced its worst outage in nearly a year.
Cale Cowan

It was the kind of coincidence Alanis Morissette sings songs about.

Less than a week after my last blog entry, which talked about the increased cost of an online subscription, our website experienced its worst outage in nearly a year. For more than three hours, many of our services were unavailabe. And it all happened at our peak traffic time.

It was an unplanned anti-marketing campaign at a time when some readers were already telling me why $9.99 was too much to pay for unlimited access to our website.

(Get information on all print and digital subscription offers HERE.)

To soften the blow of the looming price increase — Sept. 1 — and any lingering sting from our outage, I've compiled a list of 10 reasons not to complain about paying for access to the Times Colonist online.

  1. Local news. Breaking news, Constant updates. No one covers Victoria like the Times Colonist has for more than 150 years. It's an obvious one, but that's why it's at the top of the list. When news breaks in this community, the number of visits to our website skyrockets. Still need more news? We have regional, provincial, national and world. Plus business, life, entertainment and sports.
  2. We're interactive. While you're reading the news, you can comment. You can read what other people think. You can e-mail the story to your friends. You can share it on social networks.
  3. The website has stuff you will never find in print, like photo galleries and videos (Check out the Two Dozen Things videos). Have you seen the sports highlights video player that is embedded on the side of every sports page? Check it out.
  4. You can win stuff. Our contests and promotions are always available to your from our website.
  5. Speaking of stuff you can only find online, how about this blog you're reading? Or better yet, Suzie Spitfyre's blog. She has been our most popular blogger since she started writing about her weight-loss efforts earlier this year. We have others here.
  6. There is a community events calander here that you can use to post your event. Or, you can search for stuff to do. You can personalize and even have it remind you of stuff you don't want to miss.
  7. One of the best-read sections of any newspaper: obituaries. They are even easier to browse online, or you can search by name. You can even leave condolences in the guest book.
  8. Miss something? We have a powerful search function on our website. Even better, we offer easy access to Infomart, where years worth of Times Colonist stories are archived and easily searchable.
  9. Our website works on any size screen, from a monster 27-inch desktop display to the smartphone in your pocket. And, if you don't like our "responsive design" on the smaller screens, we have iPhone and iPad apps available as a free download from the App Store. (Android coming soon. Honest.)
  10. Our content is always available, from anywhere. Any screen, any device. Website, app or E-edition. And, if none of that appeals to you, you can use the website to find the best print-subscription deal for you.

It's a good list, but there is even more. But first, go ahead and tell us what you like. Tell us what you don't.

Because No. 11 is that the Internet is an ever-changing animal and we can adapt quickly and make changes to make it even better.

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