The slow demise of paper.li

There was a time, in the not-so-distant past, when paper.li was a powerful tool for those with interests and hobbies to aggregate pertinent news and social media musings from thousands of sources into a neat, tidy, and branded online newspaper. It was great! The options were plentiful, the integration with other distribution channels was seamless, and most of the content was relevant.

It wasn’t long before content marketers realized its potential to be a great source of curated content, helping them to build credibility and authority in their niche. The social sharing options were standard with the platform, allowing one to publish a decent looking e-zine with fresh, targeted content.

Back in March, that all changed. No longer would you have as many customizable options. No longer would you be able to automate as many social notifications. No longer would you have complete control of your content sources.

These have all migrated to the premium service. I get the model, and I understand that businesses need to evolve in order to survive. My real grievance with the transformation of the site is the lack of communications around the transition.

I might have been persuaded to stay on, if I had received more than one email on the topic! An email that gets lost in the constant stream of social media notifications and offers from other curation tools. One of the first considerations of an email campaign is setting the frequency. Never have I seen a frequency of one. Follow-up ensures that important emails get noticed.

Now, all told, going premium isn’t going to break the bank. They’re only asking USD$9 per month to get all of those options back. But honestly, in the end, I’m just as inclined to stop using the service.

I am currently in search of a similar service that offers a decent set of free, customizable options. Use the comments below to chime in with your suggestions, objections or tell me how right I am. Thanks!

photo credit: Florence I Italy via photopin (license)