ACADIA OF THE LANDS AND FOREST — Over the next few weeks, if a subscriber attempts to sign into FiddleheadFocus.com but faces the paywall instead of the usual lineup of articles, don’t panic. Because of an error in the subscription system for FiddleheadFocus.com, some people have had unpaid access to the website for several months, and the erroneous free access is coming to an end.
According to Fiddlehead Focus founder and Northeast Publishing General Manager Andrew Birden, a number of people who subscribed to Fiddlehead Focus have had access to the website even though the credit card they used originally has expired.
“I’d bet most people that fall into that group are completely unaware they’ve had access for free for several months,” Birden said.
“When we initially built the paywall, folks will recall that we put it together quickly. Well it turns out we put it together so quickly that we left out an important part.” The important part was the process to notify subscribers to update their credit card information or to have their access end if the person left the outdated credit card in the profile.
Birden said the newspaper will send out emails to the affected subscribers, but that often emails can end up in a spam folder or the owner may have changed the address since subscribing, and might never receive the notice.
If a person believes he or she is a subscriber, but finds they are unable to read the articles, just give the St. John Valley Times/Fiddlehead Focus a call at 728-3336. Office staff just need to update the credit card information and rebuild the subscriber record.
It’s an easy procedure that shouldn’t take more than five minutes, Birden said.
