As a thank you to our readers, the Noise Nation’s Horn & Bell blog will continue to be published at No Cost to You!
In these tough economic times you can imagine the hardship that the Horn & Bell’s staff endures throughout the year but we remain dedicated to giving you the best… the most accurate… the most timely updates… well, we’ll tell you what we know and what we think when we get a chance to write up a post on it.
The Horn & Bell appreciates your support and continued participation in our forum!
noisenation.mlblogs.com 
What a wonderful service you provide. Thank you very much!
The reports of your demise (or in this case, sellout) were greatly exaggerated, eh, Sarge? 🙂
I didn’t realize there were reports of my demise or sellout going around….?
Good one! In all seriousness though, I would think the Ironpigs cannot be too happy with the Morning Calls decision to charge to view stories on its website. I now pay for a hard copy of the MC at home however I often electronically checked the MC Hogblog in late afternoon before I departed for Coca Cola Park. On more than one occasion I got last minute updated news on roster moves or injuries prior to the game. Such information generally helps the Ironpigs by keeping fans current on news and events involving the team. This type of current news is important for serious baseball fans who want to know as much as possible about the team. There is no way that I am going to pay the Morning Call for electronic access in addition to my current seven day hard copy subscription. I’ll continue to try to keep current on game days by following this blog and other free access sites but I must admit I will miss the Hogblog. All that said, thank you very much for the great work you continue to do!
In the Morning Call’s defense: I lost my job a few years ago because my publisher stupidly jumped on the “let’s-give-away-the-store-for-free” bandwagon and promptly lost his ass. Newspapers are dying because people simply will not buy what they can get for free, and the industry naively assumed that increased ad revenues from online advertisers would offset the loss of paid circulation. In theory, they should — but in practice, online readers do not behave like print readers. Online readers refuse to look at the ads or support the advertisers, and they get mad if anyone dares suggest that their something-for-nothing mentality is to blame for the current condition of the newspaper industry. To hell with them. My career basically died at the hands of selfish online readers, so I take it very, very personally when people complain about being asked to pay for online content. (That being said, if I were the Call, I’d offer print subscribers like PSVUE a code redeemable for a free online subscription. It doesn’t pay to piss off actual customers in your zeal to rid yourself of leeches.)
Sorry to hear you lost your job RFH. I am a long time paid subscriber to the MC and I can assure you that their financial problems have little to do with me. The MC has made several bad business decisions including cutting local reporting staff that resulted in lesser coverage of both local issues and sports. The only reason I read the Morning Call is for local coverage. Over the years I feel I have accepted their price increases and received less of what I want in return. I now refuse to pay even more for quicker electronic service because I still enjoy the hard copy with my morning coffee and there are coupons, articles and ads in the print edition that do not appear on the website. Good luck in whatever you do to earn a living now. My comments about the MC relate only to them and were not intended as any disrespect toward you and your former job.
I remember picking the newpaper apart and reading every bit of it as a kid. When I moved back to the Lehigh Valley one of the first things I did was subscribe to the Morning Call. The paper was still of high quality. Unfortunately, the delivery and customer service was not. I would miss papers on 2-3 days and get them all on the 4th day. I would follow the guidelines on “What to do if you didn’t get your paper” and was always told that it would be corrected. I would call about a missing Saturday paper and receive Saturday’s paper on Sunday but no Sunday paper. It was continuous. I cancelled shortly after. A few years later I tried again. By this time the paper was a fraction of what it had been. I still enjoyed the cross word puzzles and found myself paying $1.00 a day to play a crossword. Delivery was similiar to before and I soon cancelled again. The one thing I will miss about the (free) online copy is the Groller’s Corner blog.
I may be dead wrong on this, but from my personal viewpoint the paper was fine until bought out by a large newpaper company. The parent company did poorly and took it out on the Morning Call (and possibly many other smaller papers) with staff reductions and cutbacks. Since we’re on the subject… feel free to post your thoughts and views.
There were even rumors during the season that the Noise Nation had disbanded. I quickly put an end to that!! We are alive and strong! Kudos to this blog, I get most of my info from here and also like to participate with my opinions on a subject too. Great job Horn & Bell!!! Thanks and keep up the great work!!
Just thought I’d pass some news along – as of Monday Oct. 10, Dane Sardinha has elected free agency.