I really don't agree with this ransom system and I think it will effect the writers words knowing a system like this is in place. I'm trying to find the start of how this system came into place or why, I swear I seen a thread about this not long ago, but I guess I'll ask here, why ransom an article?
We need to raise revenue. Advertising doesn't cut it anymore.
Also, I am only against the ransom of an article in theory, it may in the end be something that pays off for the reader, writer, and publisher. But right now I do not only see how the reader can have a price put on information that they could possibly already know. Will this not hinder new readership? I'm kind of put off and I'm already a viewer (but I am open minded, curious if this is how a payment for journalists doing freelance it Bitcoin could be worked out). Is there any other sites that offer a ransom type system for articles?
The archive is free for readers to read forever. Once the articles are released from ransom, they are also free to read forever. Ransom is the least worst way of hindering readership. IF it was possible to keep the magazine free, I would...however, my writers and cartoonists gottach eat, and my magazine does too, to keep itself afloat.