Online visitors to the Dawson County News website dawsonnews.com will see some changes beginning this week.
In order to access the full inventory of stories and pictures posted to the site, visitors will need to have a paid subscription to the Dawson County News.
"We are adding more and more content to our website, and it isn't fair to our paid subscribers for others to have access to that inventory at no cost. We will continue to make some of our content available for free, but online readers will need a subscription in order to see everything on the site," said Stephanie Woody, general manager for the Dawson County News.
In order to gain full access, visitors will need to establish an online account if they have not done so already. Once that is done, they will be asked if they are subscribers, and if so asked for their email address. The email address will be checked against subscription data for account approval.
"The first time for everybody will require a little bit of effort, but it's very similar to establishing an online account on many other websites. Once that is taken care of, access should be seamless for our subscribers," Woody said.
Technical support will be available for anyone having trouble getting an online account established.
The revamped website will also allow those who are interested in doing so an opportunity to subscribe to the Dawson County News directly from the website.
Urgent breaking news in which there is immediate public interest, obituaries and classified advertising will remain available without charge to all visitors, as will some other elements of the online site.
Initially, readers will temporarily be given access to a limited number of stories regardless of their subscription status, but that will apply for only a few weeks as issues related to online accounts are resolved.
"We're proud of the news and advertising content on dawsonnews.com and in our print product, and we definitely think we give our readers good value for the cost of a subscription. We are consistently adding more content and more advertising, and truly are the best source available for news about the Dawson County community," Woody added.