Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

registration

azcentral.com (Web site of The Arizona Republic) has begun requiring users to provide personal information in order to access news content. Registration follows the 3-question washingtonpost.com model (zip code, gender and birth year), rather than the nytimes.com model, which asks for more personal information and requires users to set up a login.

An optional “enhanced registration” system, which will collect more detailed personal information, will launch soon.

Registration won’t be required on index pages, classifieds, and some other areas of the Web site. Nonregistered azcentral visitors will get “one click free,” allowing them to follow links from popular Web sites such as DrudgeReport.com, said Mike Coleman, manager for site presentation/audience development at the Phoenix-based paper. Those users will be asked to register if they try to view a second azcentral story.

Coleman said the Republic will also track where registered users go on the site. This behavior information will be combined with the registration data to more effectively target advertising.

(Editor & Publisher: “‘Ariz. Republic’ Requires Web Registration” - 09/03/03)

I was contracted to set up the templates for the azcentral.com registration pages.

This isn’t the organization’s first foray into user registration. Users previously have been required to register at arizonarepublic.com and with azcentral.com’s travel section.