If I had known I would be receiving this e-mail from the Times Union, I would have exercised second thoughts before joining its blog universe. I would have stayed at my old blogspot.com website, or I would have just posted stuff on my chuckthewriter.com homepage.
This morning, I checked my e-mails and, surprise, I received an e-mail addressed to all Times Union bloggers from TU blog editor Michael Huber. Apparently charging people extra for a “Saturday early bird” edition wasn’t enough. Apparently charging people extra for a television supplement wasn’t enough.
Oh forget it… I’ll just repost what I received.
April 1, 2010.
Dear Timesunion.com blogger:
First off, let me say how much I appreciate your blog on timesunion.com. It is great to have you as part of the new conversation.
However, we have decided to make some changes to the blog section of timesunion.com. We considered increasing advertising on the page, but there are some blogs on the page – including yours – that aren’t getting as many “hits” from readers.
Therefore, in an effort to increase revenue so that timesunion.com can operate without any revenue shortfalls, we are required to make this request of all bloggers.
Effective today, April 1, 2010, in order to remain as a timesunion.com blogger, we must ask that you pay a “blogging subscription fee” of $27.99 per month. This fee will allow you to post a maximum of 15 blog posts per month on timesunion.com, of 500 words or less per blog post. Blog posts that exceed this word count, or blogs that exceed the specified quota per month, will be assessed an additional $2.99 per post. With that in mind, we need all bloggers to set up a digital payment plan so that all bills and fees can be quickly transferred to a specific timesunion.com account.
If you are not interested in participating in this blogging subscription fee, please contact me as soon as possible so that we may remove your blog from the website.
I sincerely hope that you remain part of the timesunion.com blog family, and continue to participate in the new conversation.
Yours,
Michael Huber
Are you 
serious??
Let me tell you, this is an absolute insult. I cannot believe that us bloggers would get this “bait and switch” dropped on us. Absolutely unacceptable.
In fact, here’s a copy of the entire e-mail. Click here to read it.
Chuck The Writer 
Well played, Chuckles.
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A newspaper requiring its commentators to PAY them if they’re to be published? MY GOD! Rex Smith has TOTALLY lost all shreads of any remaining jorunalistic ethics he could lay claim to with this bizarre decision. They invite you to blog then REQUIRE you to pay to stay. Unfreakingbelievable.
Well, why doesn’t the Times-Union just admit that the newspaper business is now dead? It certainly is now in Albany.
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Jango – click on the hyperlink in the blog post and see “the full version of the e-mail.” 🙂
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Too bad. I was hoping it was real. Considering that most of the “blogs” are self-serving garbage, the bloggers SHOULD pay to waste the T-U’s bandwidth.
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Can I assume this is an April Fool’s joke?
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Well, today is April 1st… 🙂
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Chuck: If it’s easier for you, you can give the money to me and I’ll give it to Mike. 😉
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Well, what am I going to do with the money I got from Teri Conroy and Kevin Marshall? 🙂 🙂
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Invite us all to Curver Creame!!!!
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Lame.
BTW…there’s no game at the Elbo tonight.
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I hope everybody else thinks so… 5 points for Street Academy by default, bay bee! 😉
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Probably an all too real option in the not so distant future, you may regret giving him this idea !
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I am hoping that this is some sick April fools joke.
One of the things I love to do every morning is to open up my computer and see what crazy thing you are talking about.
-Wayne
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Chuck, now that it’s April 2, I can comment on this and be taken seriously: You mean your not getting paid? I think you need to have a talk with Mr. Huber. Today.
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Rob –
Maybe they’ll pay me in bobbleheads. 🙂
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