A big change is happening today.

After years — more than a decade — of offering a 100% free website, as of this morning, original content comes at a premium.

Since I started at the Cassville Democrat in 2014, we’ve had a robust website. Stories, photos, sports, obits, the e-edition, opinion, community items and more have all been posted weekly by yours truly, formatted and ordered in a way any visitor to the site can see our best first and continue to peruse the rest.

When my wife, Jordan, and I purchased the paper in 2023, the previous corporate owner offered to “take the blame” and convert us to a paid website. To us, passing the buck in that sense was a bit of a cop out. At that time, we were proud to offer one of the few free websites still available, and if we were to begin to charge, we wanted to do it on our terms.

Instead of charging the reader, we explored other revenue options. We began selling digital advertising and linked up with a national advertising company to bring in a little extra revenue.

Ultimately, as we waded deeper and deeper into business ownership, it became incredibly clear we were giving away all of our content to more than half of our readership. While print subscriptions have grown more than 30% in the last three years, our traffic online far outweighs the number of print subscriptions.

Given the disparity, we knew a change had to occur, and that process began about three months ago. Since early October, we have changed virtually every aspect of our online and back-end processes regarding the website. We’ve partnered with a company leading the way in streamlining digital setups for community newspapers.

With their guidance, we have implemented a new circulation system, migrated website servers for better quality and speed, switched how our e-editions operate, and implemented an online payment system.

As of today, our website no longer says to call or email us about renewals or starting a print subscription. Now, each user has their own account and can manage their own subscriptions — print and digital, or just digital only.

And, because we value our readers, we’ve set the price at a value. Per industry standard, if you subscribe to the print subscription, you get all the online content included. 

If you have a print subscription currently and wish to activate the online access, you will need to call or email me to get it set up, but rest assured that process will be minimal effort.

If a newspaper in hand is not your bag, a digital only subscription is only $25 a year, and only $20 for seniors, active military or veterans (though you will have to ping me for that discount code). 

We set that price to be not only fair, but accessible, and compared to other newspapers with digital only subscriptions, ours is cheap. It also only applies to original content. News stories, sports stories, opinion pieces and the e-edition make up the entirety of our gatekept content. Obituaries, submitted content, photo galleries, and special sections will all remain free.

Essentially, we’re charging specifically for the content we create — no less, no more.

And, because i’m a firm believer your money has value, we are expanding our digital offerings. As of Monday, I have integrated an email newsletter system. I’m still learning and will be working out a rhythm and unexpected kinks in the next few weeks, but I’m very excited to give our weekly paper a daily vibe.

At least four times per week, if not five, newsletter emails will be available to our subscribers. There will likely be a theme of the day, like Community content on Mondays, the e-edition release on Tuesdays, news on Wednesdays, sports on Thursdays and opinion on Fridays, newsletters also will provide a vehicle for breaking news, advertising and other unique content as we create it.

With this setup, if you are an online-only reader, content can be delivered to you daily without you having to seek it out. My hope is this is not only easier to access, but also easier to digest. I hope you look forward to that email in your inbox every day.

The community newspaper industry has come a long way in the last 10 years, and we’ve been behind the times. We are excited and proud to move into the new age and make it worth not only your money, but also your time. 

We know there will be some hiccups along the way, and we have all the support in place to make this transition as seamless as possible.

To take a line from my column a week ago, we hope you enjoy going along on the ride with us. We are confident you won’t regret it.

Kyle Troutman has served as editor of the Cassville Democrat since 2014 and owner/publisher since 2023. He is a three-time ISWNE Golden Dozen award winner. He may be reached at 417-847-2610 or [email protected].