Letter: In today’s environment, requiring an online subscription understandable

Dear Editor,
Life in general has changed at a whirlwind speed in the last few decades. Internet may well have been the most significant catalyst of this change. It has been a boon and a bit of a curse as well – disruptive to some businesses.
Postal service and newspapers may well have been the most affected by Internet.
I can’t imagine that I would have been reading news occasionally from a newspaper located in a geographically far off place like New York if it weren’t for the Internet.
Requiring an online subscription makes sense and is only fair, unless newspapers were able to raise revenues through other means such as advertisement. It doesn’t seem like too much monetization is happening through ads – to my limited awareness.
Some people would go out of work if newspapers were to be converted to digital or online editions only – eliminating print completely – but there are advantages as well. Less waste, more accessibility to news, etc.
I think an online subscription may be a welcome change provided the quality of news coverage is maintained. Internet news has become a bit of a joke – not much of it is reliable.
RAMESH MANTRI, SAN MARTIN