It seems that advertising is not enough to pay for second-hand translated news. The Local wants you to pay 500kr per year for a five-day service that contains a handful of articles a day.
Note other editions of The Local i.e. Germany, Spain etc are not subject to this cost.
I wonder how many here will sign up or just read Aftonbladet etc. MS Edge and Google chrome both have built in translators if needed.
I, for one, will not sign up. I subscribe to several newspapers in various languages online and our local ?stersund news in paper form. The Lokal? NO.
Who comes here for "the news"? TL is just an echo-box for various actors who have the ability to pay to get their message "out there".
With the typical Swedish lack of "standards".
If the forum disappeared, well...it won't because this forum is a harvesting platform for the various actors, and is studied beyond belief...
TL has never had news.
It is a crap site advertising crap, information like 10 things you hate bla bla bla.
Even their FB side has less comments now. They have probably banned them all
Someone's gotta pay for all this shit.
What if TheLocal charged us forum people by the word???
I think it would be very quiet here...
Yeah, without the Community, it would be dead.
And then again, would the resident Swede bashers pay to vent their anger and frustration here???
Would new "bashers" pay to vent also???
We all know that the happy immigrants would not miss this place because they rarely post their contentment with Sweden and their choice to live in it...
I can get better quality content for free by using the national and local newspapers and either getting by with my basic Swedish knowledge or by using Google Translate.
If the content on this site was of such a standard above the main news publications I think a subscription might work, but not now, especially when the site is so broken from a usability perspective.
This is a stupid move.
Yup. If the new format is terrible, and they do not cover "regular" news.
Why would anyone pay? There is no added value here.
Poor business model.
Why on earth would i subscribe to any news site, especially TL. All the news is already on the internet or TV FREE
Exactly...My first stop in the morning is Google News, a compilation from worldwide sources...
However, if TheLocal sees fit to charge for their services, I wish them luck...
Some are willing to pay for "specialized" news, some are not...
People with no experience/knowledge about Sweden will not know the difference...
TheLocal, then would look like a good starting place...after all it is "Sweden's news in English"...
When I was looking for English versions of Swedish news, I came here, and would have paid for the privilege...
Like it or not Sweden has it's own mystique and is well thought of and considered to be a very interesting country...
I have not read the news since they stopped the comment section...
Again, good luck to TheLocal...
"Like it or not Sweden has it's own mystique and is well thought of and considered to be a very interesting country..."
No it doesn't, no it isn't and no, it certainly is not. These things you would actually have discovered by now, if you had ever lived here.
Time to put the crack pipe down, and go clear your head. You just don't make any sense.
So half way through the week and here is the news so far from the Local
1. Snow, snow and more snow.
2. How to talk about the weather in Swedish
3. Traffic chaos arrives with first snow in Stockholm: in pictures
4. 12 untranslatable Swedish words
5. Sweden's 'Christmas gift of the year' is an electric bike
6. Two men sentenced in Sweden for human trafficking
7. Danish divers find arm in search for Kim Wall's remains
8. Why The Local chose to cover the Kim Wall case the way we did
9. Five top tips if you don't have a personal number in Sweden
10. Sweden cancels Santa world cup.
11. Swedish business boss steps down in 'what do I get for my taxes' row
12. And a further weather warning of even more snow.
Plus 12 sponsored articles that are not subject to the 500kr demand.
Yes it took these 13 wonderful people to produce this for you in 3 days
Not to forget James Savage.
Obviously you are not signing up...but some will, and that will determine TheLocal's success...
Uncle Fred, you forgot, "Six things they don't tell you about the snow in Sweden".
Although granted, it is a re-run from the beginning of the year.
It would seem then that the "paid" "news" "stories" have become too expensive. That, or "they" now find it pointless to pay to pretend Sweden is the "goodest".
I would say this year, Sweden fell out of its DIY flat-pack ivory tower, immodestly showing its ankles, for all the world to see.
And it wasn't as flattering as they might have liked.
I just added Sweden to my Google News profile as a personal interest...
There were 20 articles from all over the world and 7 were from TheLocal...
I believe that proves that people really see value in what TheLocal provides...
And I believe that being in English is it's key to success...
Hey, 7 out of 20...no other source had more than 1!!!
OMG!!!
Hide, quick!!!
The "Theft of Services Police" are on the way...
TheLocal is a business. It has costs, employees, office rentals etc etc. So, it's trying to monetise its website. Nothing wrong in that, but it's tough. Even thesun.co.uk owned by a multi billion dollar company removed its pay wall after a while. To try to monetise information that is available on the internet elsewhere won't work. So they're going to need to work hard to offer exclusive and unique content and keep doing it to get renewals on subscriptions. Good luck to them.
Learning Swedish with common issues raised by new learners
A 'How to Guide' for new immigrants
Indepth interviews with celebrities or well known people
Exclusive special offers to events
Etc, etc.
Well, actually, water is blue. Absorption of photons promotes certain types of motion that is characterised as vibrational motions giving rise to the colour (photons are absorbed in the red part of the visible light spectrum, and the colour complement observed, is blue).
That's why when you see pictures of ice (i.e. ice shelves in Antactica, for example) they are a vivid blue (or, when you look at oceans etc, a white bathtub full of water, etc).
"I believe that proves that people really see value in what TheLocal provides..."
Haha, you really are a moron with a bad case of wishful thinking!
Yes, TL being essentially the only English language source of anything to do with Sweden, has a bit of a monopoly. But having a story "listed" means nothing, as it is no warranty anyone actually bothers to look at it.
It is exactly for this "monopoly" of bullshit unicorns and rainbows reports, bought and paid for, by nefarious "sponsors" and other actors, that I have made it my mission to shine a light on the "real" Sweden (you know, for people who can still think) via this forum.
And based on the hits of my posts, I would say, I have saved many a soul from coming here and wasting their lives (or, at least, I certainly hope I have made people think twice).
: )
"Have you ever thought that The Local may be selling it to them."
If they did, that proves that Thelocal is in demand as a source of credible Swedish news...
Yes!!! That is the point, it is the only(???)publication in English about Swedish news...
No competition...
Wondering what impact, this will have here...
There is NO swedish news on TL. It is rubbish.
Did you read posts 16&23???
In the old days this forum was a "clique" and posters would likely keep in touch, but probably not too long...
Todays forum is adversarial to the max, mostly all posts become "flamers", no contact there at all...
But TheLocal lives through it's news, no matter what it is called here and will survive as a pay to read entity...
It's unique and is a source outsiders consider worthy...
P/S: If you are such a hot shot hacker, why not PM me with my info???
"you cant make money from offering non swedes, Swedish news in English."
That's because outside of Sweden, very few people are interested in what goes on in Sweden, aside from watching its virtue-signalling program crash and burn, or looking for a laugh at its branded "pseudo-socialist" failures.
Before I came to Sweden, I never thought of it whatsoever, never heard anything about it, and had zero interest in anything offered.
And when I leave, for me personally, it will be like it never existed. : )
"Do you know how many real media stories actually quote TL? plenty."
Again, like old Gamla, it is a moronic take. Printing some fodder about what's happening in Sweden, is NO warranty any one person bothers reading it. And by what page count will you find such gems of the literary world? Definitely not the front, or first 10, that's certain, unless tyou are talking about Breitfart or the Daily Fail.
It just does not correlate. And what % of Meatballian content is there? 0.001%? Hardly anyone outside of Meatballia, is buying their news source, hoping to see some boredom report from the "goodest" country.
Trust me. Most people have no idea what "Sweden" is all about. Nor could they care less.
The Times finds 2m new registered readers but says 'no more than 10' global news brands can support a paying audience
http://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2017/11/23/the-times-finds-2m-new-registered-readers-says-no-more-10-global-news-brands-can
Todays Google News features 19 stories about Sweden, 9 of them are from TheLocal...
Again it seem that TheLocal is the "go to" source for Swedish news in English...
Yesterday it was 8 out of 20...Hey, they are getting better!!!
What Gamla shit stain fails to mention, is that these are some of the titles you can find on google news:
"Sweden's 'Christmas gift of the year' is an electric bike" and "Sweden cancels Santa world cup."
Zero substance, just like the Meatballs like it.
No argument there, but TheLocal is by far the most used because all the others have only one story posted...
Of course TheLocal has the upper hand because it is published in English and there is no(???)other competition as I stated before...
TheLocal has a unique niche audience...
TheLocal has a unique niche audience...
We will wait and see how it goes...
I just got a message when I opened an article asking me to be a member to read the article. 500kr/year? 10kr for 1st month and 50 for the rest of the year?
So, I went to aftonbladet.se, dn.se svt.se and then right clicked > Translate to English! More substantial news and read the same content for free.
Then I went to this thread. If not for this community, I will not even be accessing this website. I am just so bored on a Monday afternoon.
TheLocal is Sweden's Google...
I have noticed less TheLocal articles on Google News and when you try to read them you only get a little ways in before you are asked to join...for a fee...
What do you think would happen if the Forum was also a pay site???
The forum was much more active years ago and has slowly declined. I guess the same questions/answers are repeated, so some of the longer term forum users aren't as frequent as before. If they made it a pay forum, it would die on its knees quickly. Most forums are free and the ones that aren't are related to information that gives real business advice or how to make money etc.
For me the forum was the biggest reason to go the local when I came to Sweden. Strange that they don't seem to have replicated that on other local websites, although I haven't looked for a while.
Google News...Now:...TheLocal 4 out of 20 stories...Bloomberg 3, Quartz 2...
Quite a difference...
Gonna necro this old post because...
You can get a years subscription to The Washington Post for less than $20
Not to mention that you can have all TL "quality" content free, with any half-assed adblocker.
Not sure why anyone would want to though.
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