Have you visited any news sites recently and been asked to log in?
No online free news for you there then. Have you visited a news page and been asked to become a paying subscriber? Again bad news unfortunately. If you have have visited such a site they are now charging people to read their content. Unfortunately more and more online news content is being charged for. However most people using the internet are used to accessing free online news. Can you imagine if Google charged you for each time you wanted to search for something? Point made.
People are used to getting most of their news information for free. Radio and television are two sources of news information that are free to access (obviously after buying a radio or a television). Some online sites are therefore looking to operate like a traditional newspaper. Newspapers are a very outdated way to get news and information. News sites charging for online content are known to be operating a “Paywall”.
What is a News Site Paywall?
A “Paywall” is where access is restricted to users who have not paid to subscribe to the site. How do you know you need to pay for a site to access news? You will normally be able to start reading a news page or a few pages. This is just like visiting any other free online news site. However shortly after if you are on a site that requires paying you will have either a “pop-up” message appear or you will be directed to a sign-up page. It is here you will realise that the news site you are on operates behind a paywall. It is at this point that you need to start paying or leave the site. If you do not get any of these messages, good news. This means you are on an online free news site! Continue reading on for free in that case.
3 Top Free Online News Sites
Thankfully there remains many high quality free online news sites. Three of them are mentioned here in detail including NineMSN, Yahoo!7 and BBC World News.
Ninemsn
Ninemsn is one of Australia’s oldest and large news portals. Being owned by Channel 9 they have access to all the latest news and events as they happen. The site also launched a free new homepage recently for its online audience. Highlights include their News section which is the most popular news site in Australia. Also the Sports section is very popular. This is because Channel 9 Sports provides a lot of great sporting content. You can also watch a lot of Channel 9 TV shows for free via their Catch Up video streaming service.
Yahoo!7
Like Ninemsn, Yahoo!7 is closely aligned with another Australian television station, Channel 7. This site operates as a partnership between Yahoo and Channel 7. Free online news content is available right across the site. Popular sections include News, Sport and Finance. On PLUS7 you can watch any catch up television from Channel 7 free of charge.
BBC News
For free online news globally, BBC News is very hard to go past. BBC is operated by the British. It is one of the world’s largest media organisations. They provide free content on all the latest world events. With correspondents all over the world there is quality news information to be found on all subjects in all countries. They also have a quality video news section where you can view the latest news footage for free.
You can see that there are many high quality news sites still offering free content. Therefore you should save your money and avoid news sites that demand payment. It is good to know you can still be informed about all the latest news via many free online news sites.