How stupid is this?

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Am I missing something here? I just rediscovered the Globe Reader after they stuck an ad for it on today's paper. It's not new -- I remember checking it out a year or two ago -- but had forgotten about it until all this mess about the newspaper industry tanking. Here's the multimedia demo if you're curious. But here's the stupid: you can't download the Globe Reader unless you already subscribe to the print paper! WTF?! So... you're supposed to pay to have the paper delivered so you can kill trees and drop it unread into the recycling bucket just so you can get a decent online version? I'm very confused. The Globe is not saving any money on printing and delivery by doing this. The only thing I can think of it that the Globe Reader apparently serves up the content with no ads, which is great, but that freaks out the execs who can't get their head around making money from something other than advertising. Do they have some sort of senile fantasy that people will open the print edition just to look at the ads and read the content on Globe Reader? I am so confused. Besides, it's not like they're making any money from ads any more -- in fact, that's the whole problem. AND they just jacked up subscription prices to $12.25 a week for seven-day delivery (after the 50%-off intro period). That $637 a year. I did the math three times because I thought I'd made a mistake. Christ.

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