Scripps Newspapers secretly (???) rolls back registration

Registration blows

I noticed today that I didn’t have to log in to TCPalm.com.

Baffled by this, I did a double take. Then made sure I wasn’t already logged in, had a cookie hanging around or that Firefox was already logging me in. I tried to log out, but I was already out. I clicked all over the place looking for the registration barrier, but couldn’t find it (unless I wanted to post a comment on a story, then there’s registration, which is a good thing).

So I went to Knoxnews.com to see if they drank the kool-aid too. Click, click, click, no registration!

And the Rocky Mountain News. No registration!

Is this true? Or some coy game to toy with my heart? Maybe their registration-o-matic is busted at the moment. I can’t seem to find an official Editor/Publisher story about how they’re rolling this out… so take this possible news with a grain of salt.  UPDATE: It’s true! They’re testing. (Check the comments)

In retrospect, I remember reading a story on TCPalm that mentioned Drudge report had linked to it earlier in the week, and Drudge, Fark and all the other news aggregators tend to heavily prefer sites without registration. So maybe this has been up for a week or so and I just haven’t noticed.

If it’s true:  UPDATE: It’s true! They’re testing. (Seriously… Check the comments) 

HORRAY for registration roll backs!

And props to Rob Curley and his team, who broke Scripps policy by making NaplesNews.com (a Scripps site) registration free (except for commenting, email newsletters and places that it makes sense to have registration) in January of this year.

Scripps Newspapers join the trend of major metro websites rolling back their registration policies.

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Published:
04.04.06 / 11am
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best practices, business, cool stuff, everything, media changes, saving journalism
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