To our readers:

As of Tuesday morning, our online edition forsythnews.com began limiting the number of views to news, sports and feature articles unless readers have a paid subscription to our print edition or they subscribe to “paid access” on forsythnews.com. 

For several months we have required registration to our website for readers who view more than a handful of stories each 30-day period.

Beginning Tuesday, this model will require online payment of a modest subscription fee of $3.99 per month.

You can also subscribe to both print and online for only $4.99 per month. These payment options are available online with the use of any major credit card.    

If you already are a print subscriber, you can sign up for access without any additional charge. 

Publishing a local, community newspaper is very rewarding, but it’s not an inexpensive venture.

While online distribution of content lowers our printing and distribution costs, we still incur heavy costs in technology and in a variety of employees with specialized skills, including journalists. 

The credibility of professional journalists is what distinguishes your local community newspaper from other local websites that propose to be news sites. 

Although we are certainly a small business, Forsyth County News has 10 full-time employees who work solely in news gathering, writing and editing positions. That’s what sets us apart from all other news organizations in the county. 

We accept the expense associated with these positions to see that readers have access to objective and informative reporting on local government, schools, crime and courts, as well as obituaries, lifestyle and sports stories.

Why should we give this costly content away for free on our websites?

We shouldn’t — and no longer can or will. At the same time, we no longer can ask our print subscribers to foot the bill for our digital news efforts while others get a free ride.

We will still make select breaking news, legal advertisements, classified ads and some other items available to all free of charge, but our unique stories about our community will be available only with print or online paid subscriptions. 

Frankly, we think it’s only fair to those who have long stood by us, who recognize the value in what we do, and who have in the past helped pay the bills for our award-winning content. 

We know that you can get some content from other sources at no cost, but you also get what you pay for.

Our volume of local content far exceeds that of any other news outlet and our reliability and credibility have been proven. We hope you will agree with us that we are worth the price of subscription.