2018-11-21

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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

Speedy tortoise outruns fire

SAFE BY A HAIR—This is a fire story with a happy ending. Doug Wong and his family of Agoura Hills lost their home in the Woolsey fire. They were worried about their pet tortoises that live in their backyard. The family was unable to get the animals out during the evacuation, and could not to return to the neighborhood to […]

Chaplains seek the right words in trauma



As the Woolsey fire tore through the Conejo Valley, Mary Krampach’s Sunset Hills home lost Spectrum phone, cable and internet service. Without a way to learn which areas were under mandatory evacuation orders, she and nearby homeowners watched the blaze with the naked eye and decided that if the flames crossed a certain ridgeline, they would evacuate. Krampach’s neighborhood was […]

Lions, Coyotes fall in CIF playoff semifinals

Four local high school football teams entered the CIF-Southern Section semifinal round last weekend, but only one survived with a chance to play for a section title this weekend. Oaks Christian (12-1 overall) was overwhelmed by top-ranked St. John Bosco (13-0) in the Division 1 semifinals, 56-10. Calabasas (10-3) couldn’t keep up with Upland (11-2) in Division 2, falling 30-21. […]

Banner day for local stars

Teams at Agoura, Westlake, Viewpoint qualify for state



Local high school girls’ and boys’ long-distance runners continue to make Ventura County proud. They broke records, claimed section crowns and established program firsts at last weekend’s CIF-Southern Section Cross Country Finals in Riverside. Many of them will continue the next leg of the journey at the CIF State Championships on Nov. 24 in Fresno. Newbury Park wunderkind Nico Young, […]

Dime-store thriller

Bryce Howard, the pride of the Tribe, is on pace to break school assists record



Bryce Howard has survived basketball purgatory. Howard, a senior point guard for the Westlake High boys’ basketball team, suffered a leg injury toward the end of his sophomore season. He missed seven months of action. One week after he was cleared to return, something still didn’t feel right. He was hurting, but he didn’t tell anyone—not his parents, not his […]

Community helps families without homes



In this season of giving, a community has rallied to help three local families who lost their homes in the Woolsey fire. The families will get a fresh start thanks to a GoFundMe campaign. A member of each of the families works at Brookside Elementary School in Oak Park The school’s campus supervisor, Lisa Williams, who is married to Mike […]

Fantastic lights at Reagan Library

DAZZLING—Above, guests pass through a tunnel of beams during a preview of the Holiday Lights display Nov. 7 at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley. Top left, Tori Hoefke of Simi Valley and her 2-year-old son Ansel are amazed by an animated light show. Bottom left, a F-14 Tomcat, part of the library’s permanent exhibits, is lit up with green […]

Time for tea, tunes and holidays

The Agoura Hills Harmony Chorus, aka Ahh! Cappella, will present its annual Jingle Bell Tea fundraiser on Sat., Dec. 1 at St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church hall, 1 Church Road, Thousand Oaks. The group has no religious affiliation with the church. The event, with a theme of “It’s A Wonderful Life,” will have tea, delectables, specialty shopping, opportunity drawings and a […]

Leibovitz paints picture about her career with celebrities



Celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz wowed the crowd at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza on Nov. 6 with tales of life on the edge in the early 1970s when she worked as a lead photographer at Rolling Stone, one of the leading counterculture magazines of its time. Leibovitz, a guest of the Distinguished Speaker Series, shared insights into the photographs […]

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes

Hot Flashes

Just weeks before election day, that loveliest time of the year when Americans fling verbal grenades at lightning speed, Mr. Fixit and I escaped the crossfire for a long-awaited trip to Paris. We hauled our sorry old behinds, well-aged like USDA prime, across the pond as fast as our anti-inflammatories would carry us. Days before our departure, we realized a […]