Living in Singapore is expensive enough.

Which is why it is difficult to fault Singaporeans for wanting some non-essential things in life to come for free, such as Facebook, illegal movie-streaming and news.

Paying for content

Recently, English paper of record, The Straits Times, changed the way its online site operates.

In a bid to make readers pay for content, ST put up a paywall to compel subscription to its news service, which has since been marketed as "premium" news written by its stable of hardworking reporters.

The response, however, did not go down well with the free-loaders:

Today newspaper responds

In response to the unpopularity of compelling readers to pay for content, Mediacorp-owned newspaper Today, joined in the fray:

It's value proposition is straightforward and status quo: Never should you worry about paying for the top stories or limiting yourself to "non-premium" articles, because everything is free.

However, it can be noted that Today and ST are vastly different animals.

Today, which has ceased its print edition, has always been a free sheet. But it is certainly not as comprehensive in its coverage of current affairs, owing to the size of its staff strength -- which is predictably smaller than the ST newsroom.

Today is more like Channel News Singapore, which is like Channel News Asia (also under Mediacorp and a sister site), but focused more on Singapore.

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Interesting developments

Since transitioning to its online-only edition, Today has been exploring long-form features, such as its Faces on the Subway series about regular people on the train and wrapping them with issues to be talked about.

So, if you're tired of seeing this:

Or this:

Always remember: Healthy competition is a good thing.

Top images via Today, Facebook