E-Media Tidbits

I feel a rant coming on. As I click through to web news articles spotted on blogs, in news search engines, and in e-mails from friends and colleagues, I hit upon the increasingly common and vexing forced-registration screens. (For an example, try this story on DallasNews.com -- assuming you haven't already registered with that site -- linked to on Romenesko earlier this week: "Most exciting thing in journalism.") It wasn't so bad when only a few sites required registration to see any of their beyond-the-homepage content, but as the user-registration herd in the news industry has grown, it's become increasingly annoying. This week, I wrote my monthly Editor & Publisher Online column about alternatives to forced user registration. I think sites that force registration on the first story are making a mistake. At the least, they could allow for a way for casual visitors coming in via blogs and search engines to bypass registration temporarily. In my column, I discuss alternatives to forcing registration; some in the industry are trying out voluntary schemes.

As Adrian Holovaty (who I quoted extensively in the E&P column) notes, this is setting up to be an arms race between publishers using forced registration and programmers offering ways for website users to get around it. In a recent post to his Holovaty.com weblog, he noted Bugmenot's "Bookmarklet," a free application that you add to your web browser's bookmarks (or favorites). When you hit a registration screen, select the Bookmarklet and it will give you a login and password to use on the site -- and bypass filling out the registration forms.

It doesn't have to be this way. Voluntary registration with smart enticements, mandatory registration after "X" number of free articles ... I encourage you to think about other ways than forcing registration on the visitor's first click.