I know many of you, including myself, frequent the Hartford Courant’s website Courant.com.

In fact, a lot of us have stopped getting the print subscription and simply visit Courant.com

The Courant has been hurt in recent years by declining revenues and staff cuts. In fact, they have had to merge operations with Fox 61 TV to stay afloat.

While there may be different explanations for this, I attribute to the fact that they never made enough from online advertising to make up for the reduction in print subscriptions and exposure to print advertising.

Furthermore, most of us use AdBlock Plus in our browsers to block ads from websites, a practice I still recommend unless you know FOR SURE that the website controls all of its own ads. 3rd party website ads have been known to cause viruses.

I really wouldn’t have had a problem if the Courant said that they would charge $5 a month for a website only subscription. The Wall St. Journal has charged $10 a month since day 1. The NY Times offers a new $8 a month smart phone and tablet package to attract young subscribers.

Your Action is Required to Keep Using Courant.com
The Courant is not going to make you pay anything at this time, but you need to make some changes in your habits. If you still want free Courant.com access you have to register for an account. You can do this by visiting
https://myaccount2.courant.com/dssSubscribe.aspx

You will create a user name and password and give your e-mail. I am sure that from time to time, they will e-mail you offers from advertisers. Use a backup e-mail address if you prefer. Keep in mind, that it is not free for the Courant to provide 80 to 90% of its newspaper to you online for free. This is a small sacrifice to make if you enjoy reading Courant.com . If you ever get signed out, you will need to log in on Courant.com to keep reading their site.