I don't really have a dog in this fight as I no longer pay for any subscription service, so I'm just going to play devil's advocate....
Yes they've been around for a long time covering Iowa football, but they went independent and have about 300 subscribers. If they immediately let them have press credentials then where does it stop? Can I go create my own Hawkeye blog and get press credentials as long as 300 people sign my online guestbook?
Trust me, I get the counter argument: They've been covering Iowa professionally for x amount of years, they should be grandfathered in. However they ****** a lot of people off in their time as writers (the DJK fiasco comes to mind) and decided to create their own website thinking they'd just be automatically granted press credentials for showing up. To that I would say tough titties, life isn't fair?