I am in the US and frustrated that paywalls block access to local news. I’m a luck in that I have my AFR.COM subscription and can read AFR content. But if I didn’t have my subscription I’d be blocked. The same with News sites: The Australian is as if I was back in Australia – the paywall is blocking access beyond the introduction to a story. The barrier is not causing me to sign up because I can turn to other outlets for a news catch up – Twitter being the main outlet. Sometimes a headline is all you need when you are on the road.
Erecting a paywall around a regional newspaper site blocking access from the other side of the world seems odd to me.