CCO Content And Comment Privileges To Remain Free!

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Mole #3 Nostradamus of Local Politics
Mole #3 Nostradamus of Local Politics

With the recent announcement that the Courier and Press will be requiring payment of access to premium online content and posting privileges, the City County Observer would like to assure our readers and tens of thousands of potential readers that our content and comment section will continue to remain free of charge. We estimate that if we charge our readers the same on line fee that the Courier shall soon be charging we would have to charge our readers $120 a year.

We appreciate our readership and at least 98% of the comments here do not merit removal so please, read our content, add our website (www.city-countyobserver.com) to your favorites list, and feel free to comment as long as you keep those comments civil and do not get personal.

We also encourage you to support our advertisers because without them the CCO wouldn’t  be free.

Welcome to Evansville’s first online only publication that is dedicated to good public policy and practical financial management of the taxpayer’s dollars.

The City County Observer is a locally owned, locally grown, local government focused non partisan community on-line publication.

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53 COMMENTS

  1. Hahaha. Control freaks trying to salvage a dying business model.

    Did you see where the Evansville Regional Business Committee gave a statement to Connie Robinson for the hotel project? It was in Jack Pate’s Courier and Press Sunday edition. Shocking, huh?

      • Page 10A, next to the last paragraph.

        If we have some changed positions when the vote takes place it will be because of pressure from the shadow government that actually runs this city and county.

        During the 8 years of the previous mayoral administration the common council never stood up to these people and told them that as a council member they report to the citizens of Evansville, not a group of elite millionaires. Yes, we will take your money at election time, but we will vote for what is best for the citizens of this community. If the way we vote happens to coincide with your plans that is fine, but we do NOT work for YOU.

        ___

  2. their definition of premium content is any news story, for $10 a month. one would think there are enough ads to support their internet venture. evidently their lack of serious reporting of the news is coming back to roost

  3. Congratulations! Ron, Joe and the crew. Good things happen to good people and I predict a “VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS” at City-County Observer.
    And to my friends from Courierpress:
    Welcome aboard! “Evansville’s True Watchdog”
    City-CountyObserver! …

  4. Ah, this is the place!
    So much nicer here, I like the forum format better already.
    I remember Evansville used to have another paper called the Courier Press. Whatever happened to that?

  7. Ron started this site with just a few pieces of paper on his kitchen table. What an amazing thing it has blossomed into.

    I think beyond a shadow of a doubt this site has completely caught the Machine off guard. They have, and still are, completely underestimating the power of the internet to level the field between Machine and Grass Roots. No longer are traditional newspapers that don’t do investigative journalism the only media source in town.

    Lastly, thank you Ron & Joe for all of the opportunities to get things changed around here the past few years with the most notable ones being the cemeteries, the Gresham House, and the blight around downtown and third ward.

  8. Now this is the way to run a rail road. Thanks CCO for becoming the second opinion of the local media. The Courier deserves to be run out of business because they are an obvious puppet of the Mayor. It shall be a cold day in hell before I pay for the Couriers on line subscription fee.

    Please pass the word around that Evansville now has a home owned and home owned objective news paper called City County Observer.

  9. I predict the CCO will soon be able to double their ad rates, good for you guys Joe and Ron

  10. The commenters who discover, and migrate to the CCO will find it’s content, a “Breath of Fresh Air”. I have abandoned the C&P and the royrogers screen name I used on that site. but you will still have to put up with my opinions here. Go CCO,—you’ve been kicking the C&P’s (aka ERBC propaganda machine) patootie, for some time,
    but, I think we all knew that long ago.
    Thanks for stepping up to the plate for your fellow citizens.

  11. I’d like to see more “normal reporting” stories about local crimes, charities, events, etc. Maybe even a sports section? I stopped reading the C & P over a year ago and certainly wouldn’t pay for it. So keep up the good work here. Also maybe some writing from all points of view? It’s usually pretty biased over here, I just happen to.agree with some of it.

    • I agree with some of these suggestions. I’d like to see an expansion of video content and video commentary.

      • video would be nice but it eats a ton of bandwidth which costs money. They should get Rick Davis to moonlight and write the occasional sports piece, maybe op eds about westside sports

        • No, I was suggesting they set up a YouTube channel and provide raw, unedited footage of events and raw videos of interviews and perhaps debates on the subjects of the day between business leaders, politicians, etc.

          The traditional media have time and space constraints that online sites do not have. This would also allow for user-submitted material from townhalls, events, etc.

          It could be really cool.

    • Well that’s a lot of content you are asking for and that requires staff, ergo money. I doubt this site makes enough money to provide all that.
      However, it wouldn’t cost them a dime to take on Letters to the Editor type content from readers that we all could comment on.

    • I agree with sports. More detailed sports news. If you report that Angel Mounds had 200 runners for a cross country meet, please report more than 3 or 4 runners. I would think normal reporting should be at least top 10… boys and girls.

  12. and since I can’t see the content they are promoting I took a moment to unlike their facebook page

  13. I really hate that the C&P has decided to charge us to view online. I have not lived in E’ville for many years but have always read and kept up with the news. Most of my family still lives there and surrounding area’s. Many of the Courier’s stories are days old and not up to date. Look at the business section…4 stories and one has been up since 9/3. I sometimes think after 4 in the afternoon there is nobody home in the staff office. I still get wfie14 breaking news and go to their website too. I am glad for the recommendations to this site, thanks guys and girls.

    Kelly Farris

  14. I hope to see the majority of the CP commentators moving over here. Glad to hear the CCO will remain open to all for public discussion.

  15. Great news CCO. Looks like you have the Courier on the ropes. People are tired of the political spin machine (Courier and Press) for the administration.

    I have many friends switching over to the CCO since this hotel issue started. They tell me that they are tired of the Courier carry political water for the Mayor.

    Keep the excellent work CCO.

  16. Looks like the rumors about the Courier and Press are having major financial problems may be true. Never heard of such, changing for on line publication use. They are going to charge .34 cents per day to read the Courier on line. What an odd figure.

    Bottom line this fee charged by the Courier is about $120 a year. They can forget it.

    Looks like the CCO better get ready for major increase in readership.

    • Actually, the subscription to the Evansville C&P itself ~ paper edition ~ runs about $20/month, so about $240 a year! I cancelled my subscription several months ago, because the paper had gotten to the point of being “nothingness” in its content.

      I’ve kept up with the obituaries through the online edition, but I do miss “dragging the paper in” every morning, but it was just not worth the money anymore.

      • The C&P does a good job on the local high school and college sports section and their outdoors writers are also very good. Their editorials are far left and often preachy.

  17. I think I’ll join this site; after reading the recommendations from the C&P comments section, this looks good to me!

  18. I’m a regular over @ C&P. Jumping so now that they are charging. See, I’ve always been under the assumption that newspapers were supposed to make their revenue from ad sales. A newspaper subscription was only intended to offset the cost of printing, which an online site does not have to do.

  19. I am the spouse of someone who posted on C&P and was just talked into creating an account there last week. Unfortunately, my request for an account was dumped because my spouse obviously lives in the same house. So, I’m an unknown at C&P but decided to jump in here and be new here instead of being new there for a day. Anyway, hello all! Hope to chat here often. Unfortunately, I’m not much into politics because I come from a sales background and talking politics has always been a “no-no”.

  21. I will keep my C&P subscription, too, but this site definitely has better content. If it stays local, that is a good thing!

  22. So do I put in whatever name I want each time I post here, or is there some way to “reserve” a name?

      • Hey CCO, are you guys looking into the rumor that one of the council members was offered $50,000 and no opponent in the next election to change their NO vote to a YES vote?

        • The CCO has a confidential “Mole Hotline” at top of page. I’d have voted YES last, watched the NOs win 6-3, pocketed the $50,000 campaign contribution and then keep fighting for the little man.

  24. Always enjoyed the CCO. Of course I appreciated anyone who’s not always asking for money like some people.

  25. I predict that the C&P will come to realize that the attraction of their online newspaper was not in the writing of their own staff, but in the writing of the commentators that once, but no longer posted their.

    Still, I think that some will be pleased by the elimination of opposition of public policy that was sometimes there, and the threat that the truth of a matter might come out in the writings of the commentators.

    In the end, I think their website will not be as attractive to advertisers, and there may be a backlash carried out against their print media, and a effort to NOT patronize the advertisers that use the newspaper to advertise their products, all in all making C&P newspaper advertising less attractive.

  26. Interesting to see the C&P articles posted today are getting very few comments, relatively speaking. Alexa ratings will tell the tale on their blundering.

    • We found one called http://www.statshow.com that gives traffic numbers instead of just ranking. For a trailing year the numbers are nearly exact so they must be pulling data from Google analytics to be so precise. The things they do not catch are big spike days as they report the last trailing year and a big day gets diluted.

    • I don’t think there will be any more 500-post threads over there. It looks like 50 will be pretty good.

  27. I stopped posting on C&P long ago because it seemed almost every article turned into the same drivel from the same trolls. Its refreshing to read comments and opinions from educated, rational people who are interested in healthy debate over local issues rather than sniping and name calling. Thanks and good luck CCO. I will encourage everyone I know to use your site.

  28. This site is awesome..The Evansville Press was my favorite over the years. I wont give the Courier a dime.

  32. Commenting seems to have really dropped off on the C&P website in the two days that their subscription fees have went into effect.

    Looks like more of their articles are now being published without the blue C&P icon on them so non-subscribers can read them, but not comment on them. Could this be a sign that they are noticing the loss of internet traffic that they used to ? Are their Alexa ratings going to take a toll ?

    I hope so, because I think the kind of control they are trying to exert makes them less of a benfit to the community, and even more of a propaganda rag than they were before.

    I hope people are very consicious of not paying any unnecessary attention to the C&P websited to make them suffer for the role they are now assuming in the community.

    I’m not saying that all of comments there had merit, or weren’t malicious, but I believe that some revealed real truth, and that the newspaper started charging fees in part to help hide the truth and speak criticisms that the people should know about.

    • The censor the truth. They have removed thousands of words that exposed wrong doing at the Civic Center over the past years. They showed their true colors and proved to me that they are not interested in telling the truth. I don’t have any trust in that rage. They are just self serving.

      I try not to even click on that rags web site anymore. And I hope that everyone else avoids it and lets it sink into the muck where it belongs.

  33. With the local print newspaper’s recent decision to charge for access to the “news”, I have found I can get better info from the CCO on local news. National news can be found on 100’s of free websites, as can sports, financial, and weather.

    Local high school sports are still a problem, but it was with the C&P’s nonexistent coverage before.

    So, thanks, CCO, for being here.

Comments are closed.