“Read All About It!”…Or Not.

It’s no secret that Streator loves a good deal. Half-price margaritas? See you at Chix. Dollar well drinks? Better grab a booth at the Parkway before 3 p.m. But ask a local to pay $3 a week for The Times newspaper, and you’d think you just suggested a $47 avocado toast subscription.

Yes, for years now, Streatorites have loudly grumbled that The Times has the audacity to put their news behind a paywall. “How dare a business attempt to sustain itself!” they cry, one hand clutching a 64-ounce polar pop from Circle K, the other typing “SHARE IF YOU AGREE” on yet another Facebook conspiracy theory.

But now, with The Streator Standard available online—for free, mind you—you’d think the masses would come flocking. Finally, local news and opinions served up on a silver platter. So where are the readers? After 3 entire hours of us posting our absolutely free content, we ask again, where are the readers??

Sure, they’ll read a post about a cat stuck in a storm drain or comment “SMH” on an article they didn’t finish. But actual readership? Clicking the link? Scrolling past the headline? Not so much.

Because it turns out, the issue was never about paying. It was about caring.

Streator doesn’t have a reading problem. It has an engagement problem. It’s easier to share a meme about potholes and crumbling sidewalks than read a nuanced article about infrastructure funding. It’s more fun to accuse the mayor of “doing nothing” and "being corrupt" than to attend a city council meeting or read the minutes. And God forbid we take a few minutes to reflect on how car-centric development, tax-increment financing, or declining population might be impacting our town’s long-term health. That would take effort—and worse—reading.

So no, it’s not about $3 a week. It’s about attention. And sadly, it turns out that in Streator, for many of the keyboard warriors with the loudest opinions, even free is too expensive when it comes to ideas.

We’ll keep writing. Hopefully, someday, someone out there might read.