Biased Observer

I am not sure when this happened, since I am a print subscriber to the Straits Times and barely read it as it is, much less take the effort to surf to the ST website back when it was free. But there's now a page for a small, puny, pithy selection of articles for free.

Time to break out the bubbly!

I can remember the furor generated back when they decided to change to a subscription service, incurring the wrath of untold numbers of free-loaders. Not that I'm sympathetic to SPH for its rather bone-headed move, but I'm also not sure how I can absolutely defend anyone's right to read Straits Times articles for free. That said, the internet being what it is, you better have something real special to offer before going to a pay model.

Anyway, I wonder what triggered this, and actually what's the point of it even. The offerings are paltry, worse than what asiaone offers by way of ST articles. But it's probably pointless to wonder because this presumes they have a clear strategy in the first place.