2016-06-30

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Acorn online content now offered free

'Paywall' removed

The new millennium has been a transformative time for newspaper publishing.

Changing reader habits and the advent of new technology have placed big demands on companies in the print news business.

The Acorn and its parent company, Times Media Group, understand that their biggest responsibility is not only the delivery of credible, relevant information in a timely fashion, but making sure residents have easy access to the publication when stories become available.

That’s why we’re super excited about the news being shared today.

Following a five-year stretch in which Acorn readers were given the option of purchasing online subscriptions to the paper, that so-called “paywall” is coming down.

“Mr. Publisher, tear down this wall,” the late President Ronald Reagan might have once said.

And so we did.

Starting immediately, all online content from our five Acorn publications will be available at no charge to the reader, meaning a paid subscription is no longer required to click and read articles. The weekly Acorn has always been delivered to your driveway at no cost—that more than 40-year tradition will continue—and from now on The Acorn on the internet will be free as well.

Why the change?

The Acorn is your community newspaper, and we want to make sure it stays that way. We believe it’s important that residents feel a connection to the stories we write and also learn about the businesses that advertise in their community. The absence of a paywall is the best way to ensure this free-flow of information remains.

We also invite readers to sign up for the new, easy-to-read Acorn newspaper e-edition delivered weekly to your e-mail. Viewed on mobile, desktop or laptop, the pages are super easy to navigate and, free, just like the print paper.

Local journalism is first gear in the engine that drives America’s free press, and a free press it shall be.

Archives

Tips on helping the aging brain

COMMENTARY /// Brain health


We jokingly call them “senior moments,” those times when the name of your dentist is on the tip of your tongue but you can’t quite remember it, or a frantic search for your car keys ends when you discover them next to the carton of milk in your refrigerator. Usually, these are common and harmless lapses in memory. At other […]

Pet of the week



SNAKES ALIVE!—Daisy is a female yellow and white King snake. She would make a good first snake. If you would like to adopt Daisy, ask for ID No. A4962641 at the Agoura Hills Animal Shelter, 29525 Agoura road. Occasionally pets have already been adopted, so check http://animalcare.lacounty.gov before visiting.

Coyotes deliver nightly siren song




Beach mania arrives with the end of the school year and a spike in temperature. This summer, the stretch of Kanan Road from Agoura Hills south to Pacific Coast Highway has echoed daily with police sirens as beachgoers blaze a record pace to reach the shore. My rural Agoura community is nestled far below Kanan, yet the wailing sirens resound […]

If at first you don’t succeed, tri, tri again

Team of local triathletes will compete at Ironman Canada on July 24


Local triathletes are heading to Canada. P5 Racing, a triathlon team which won Ironman Arizona in 2014, will compete at Ironman Canada on July 24 in Whistler, British Columbia. A group of 16 competitors, including P5 founders Scott and Kari Davis, will make the 1,400-mile trek to compete in the 140.6-mile competition. Competitors will swim 2.4 miles in Alta Lake, […]

Westlake teen takes center ice

Lola Mormino is only girl on Ventura Mariners bantam hockey team


Lola Mormino laced up ice skates for the first time when she was 11 years old. “I couldn’t stand up,” she said. She donned all her equipment— stick, gloves, helmet, shin pads and Chicago Blackhawks sweater—ready for Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals or a morning skate at a local rink. She kept slipping on the ice at the […]

Our Conejo Valley Rams

COMMENTARY /// Los Angeles Rams


Cowboys set the foundation. Rams took over the show. The Dallas Cowboys held their training camp at Cal Lutheran from 1963 to 1989. The Los Angeles Rams, who recently relocated from St. Louis, will spend training camp in late July and August at Irvine before practicing at the Thousand Oaks university during the regular season. The Conejo Valley is home […]

101 work delayed until fall




The latest freeway delay isn’t the rush hour slowdown near The Oaks mall. It’s the $37.5-million expansion of the 101-23 interchange. Originally scheduled for completion by spring, the project end date was first pushed to August, and now Caltrans expects to be done in the fall, a department spokesperson said this week. Construction began in February 2014. With much of […]

Transit authority wants new sales tax on ballot




The Metropolitan Transportation Authority board voted June 23 to place a new half-cent sales tax measure on the November ballot in Los Angeles County. If approved by a two-thirds major i ty of voters, the tax would raise the countywide levy to 9.5 percent, one of the highest in the nation. The rate will be higher in cities that already […]

Little desire for public shuttle service in Calabasas




Most residents in affluent Calabasas and neighboring cities own at least one car and rarely use public transit. But some residents still depend on buses and shuttles to get to school and work and to run errands. Ali Asghar, a 21-year-old from Calabasas, said that while public transportation in Los Angeles is expanding, and the 161 Metro bus from Woodland […]

Man survives apparent suicide leap off the Kanan Road bridge




A man was airlifted to the hospital June 26 after he apparently tried to commit suicide by jumping off the south side of the Kanan Road freeway bridge in Agoura Hills. “He landed on the slow lane of the eastbound 101 and a good Samaritan dragged him to the right shoulder,” California Highway Patrol Officer Leland Tang said. The incident […]