Media In Canada becomes a paid-access subscription service. In other news, the world sucks.

Today I received my usual newsletter from Strategy Magazine’s online publication, Media In Canada. I saw an interesting link and clicked it to read the full article and I was directed to a webpage that let me know that my free service was soon to become paid access. Media In Canada’s is offering me an early-bird chance to sign up for a $99.95 subscription, marked down from the full $149.95 price.

The newsletter will stay free “for those of you who simply want a quick snapshot of the news each day”. That snapshot will consist of a headline plus less than one paragraph on each story, I presume.

Hoo-whee, it was like a riled up hornet’s nest at the Donahue household for about ten minutes! I’m a freelancer, damn it! In these perilous times of slashed marketing, it’s a buyer’s market these days for aspirants in the marketing workforce. I’m sometimes hard-pressed to keep myself in ramen noodles.

Yessiree, I have a few questions for the good people at Media In Canada, such as:

What does this new paid access get me? Is the content going to change?

Will there be special networking opportunities available to subscribers?

What about access to job site? Will the job site change? Will job advertisers be scared away by the fact that only paid-content users will have access to it?

The newsletter is still free… what does that mean: a headline + a small (sometimes incomplete) paragraph? What is the value of that, other than a plug for their own paid services?

Will the access to the content on its parent company, Strategy Magazine, website change? (It currently provides access to some of the feature articles that Media In Canada publishes.)

Will subscriptions to Strategy Magazine’s sister publication “Stimulant” (for the creative types) still be free?

Does one subscription grant access to content to just one person or to an entire group or company? In other words, is there a way I can share my subscription to offset the cost?

I called MIC at the number they provided on the webpage and left a message.
I called their subscription service and was told that they had no information about the change at this time (maybe call back on Thursday). So, no answers yet.

Frustrated, I contacted their direct competition, Marketing Magazine. Marketing Mag, although they have paid content areas, also sends out a free newsletter that gives users free access to articles and their job postings. A gentleman at the subscription desk told me that for now, Marketing Magazine access is still free, but that they will be switching to paid content in the near future. “Enjoy it while you can”, I was told.

Faaaantastic.

Media In Canada and Marketing Magazine are great resources, but it’s really grinding my gears that I will have to pay for content that I’ve been getting for free. I’m also reminded that my favourite online publication One Degree stopped their presses recently due to fiscal considerations. Is there no one left? Is this the state of things to come and I should just shrug and suck it up? A hundred bucks is chump change for a company but for someone like me it’s one more bill and really, one more decision: a subscription to Media In Canada or attend the XYZ conference that will provide me with learning and networking opportunities? Eeny-meeny-miney-mo…

It seems to me that the ones most affected by this change will be, as always, the little business owners like me who don’t have big marketing budgets. Who cares about us anyway? We don’t affect anyone’s bottom line but our own. Tough tiddlywinks to us!

In an industry that is more and more touting the trust economy, the failure of mass media to connect with its audience and the success of niche marketing, this a sad state of affairs.

I am irked. Irked and coming down from my adrenaline rush. I need to go lie down.