Posted on 10/31/2009 6:04:35 AM PDT by NewJerseyJoe
A few months ago, needing to cut my monthly budget way down, I examined every place where I could cut. One of the things I noticed was how much money I was spending on a liberal newspaper that was continuing to jack its price while constantly shrinking in size and increasing in content from other news agencies (i.e., less NJ news, which is the reason I bought it in the first place).
So I quit the Star-Ledger cold turkey.
Other than the comics and the weekly food sections, I discovered that I don't miss it. On Sundays, an acquaintance is able to give me her "used" paper and I'm able to get the Sunday coupons -- about the only thing of value left in this paper. (Plus, you can print coupons from the Internet now.)
Breaking up (with the Star-Ledger) was really easy to do. I get almost 100% of my news online. I watch local news only for the traffic & weather, and the occasional local-interest story. The weekly free newspaper in my town has more local news stories than the daily paid paper. I get more news from listening to Rush Limbaugh each day than I ever did from the Star-Ledger. And if I'm so motivated, I can get most of the Star-Ledger articles on the nj.com website anyway.
Any similar stories?
NJ ping
Our local paper posted a story on their blog bragging that they had one of the highest increases in the country in readership. 6%! I went to the link and found the top 10 increases in circulation. #10 only had a .39% increase in circulation and our paper was not listed in the top 10. Come to find out, the 6%(or more) increase was all in online readers who don’t pay to read the paper.
Go back to a single page newspaper with local news and advertising.
Congratulationson you rrecovery Joe. I have been cold turkey from the Atlanta Urinal Constipation for 10 years now.
I cancelled my subscription to the socialist rag Hartford Courant five years ago.
Congratulations... You won’t miss it.
I watch with amusement the TV ads for the NY Times “weekender” when they make the claim “the best journalists — that’s not even debatable” or some-such claim. I’m almost motivated to call the 1-800 number just to hassle them and waste their toll-free expense but then I recognize: the NY Times is worthless... Ignore it.
Yesterday I walked by vending machines for the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times and marveled that in my life time the machine price has increased from ten cents to SEVENTY FIVE cents. It’s been at least 5 years since I’ve purchased a copy.
Congratulations!
That is a lot of money for "olds."
I think at the end of the day, the only newspapers which will survive are the ones that are truly local and entirely ad-supported. The main thing going for them is that they are a real news source, with actual reporters and journalists writing the stories, as opposed to most big city papers which just reprint things from AP wires. The second thing going for them is that advertisers pay the bills, because in this day and age, who is going to subscribe to receive day-old "olds?"
I dropped the local liberal rag after 10 years of subscribing and let them know why in no uncertain terms.
But because I gave the paper deliverer a tip last Christmas he drops off a extra paper every morning in my driveway!
LOL! I love it.
Getting the paper for free after I canceled my subscription.
Remember, the subscription numbers are a major factor in the price the paper can charge for advertising. The larger the number of subscribers, the higher the add rates.
The paper makes its money off its advertising. The price it charges for its paper is a lost leader where they dont break even.
Ex-Atlanta Journal Constitution reader for many, many years now. Every now and then they leave a free one on my lawn and I put it in the reading room in case we run out of hygiene products.
Their latest pitch is to take a new position of not endorsing candidates, which is a hoot when the daily bias that already exists is taken into account.
AJC left me. They stopped delivering to my area and I really missed the classified and food section.
Then I realized that I could find much better content on the food info online and there isn’t much in the classified except scam work from home ads.
One of my students was raising money for his school band by selling 10-week subscriptions to S. Florida’s liberal rag, the Sun Sentinal. So I gave him the ten bucks to support the band and got the ten weeks of papers which I did not read. The papers continued, but I did NOT re-subscribe. THEN the Sun Sentinal sent a bill for the additional papers. I refused to pay, because I had not re-upped for them. So the Sun Sentinal sent the bill (for $10.00, mind you) to a COLLECTION AGENCY!!!!! I wrote a detailed letter to the collection agency explaining how they were being used by the Sun Sentinel and they promply stopped the harrassment.
I have never actually bought the Star Ledger, though it’s on sale in most newstands around here, and I live in ALlendale NJ, up near the Rockland County NY. border.
I was made aware of Paul Mulshine awhile ago, and looked up some of his columns, and really liked them, UNTIL, I then read a predictable trashing of Sarah Palin from him.
Interestingly, the BERGEN RECORD called only an hour ago, to solicit a renewal of a subcription we cancelled a year ago, and they offered the SUNDAY RECORD only at TEN DOLLARS A YEAR, so we took it. That comes to NINETEEN CENTS A WEEK, for a paper that (I think) still sells for $1.50 for the Sunday edition. We cancelled the NY Times many months ago, also, and only get the SUNDAY TIMES. They are in real desperation mode, all of them, and are making these special deals of course ONLY to beef up circulation numbers.
I have never actually bought the Star Ledger, though it’s on sale in most newstands around here, and I live in ALlendale NJ, up near the Rockland County NY. border.
I was made aware of Paul Mulshine awhile ago, and looked up some of his columns, and really liked them, UNTIL, I then read a predictable trashing of Sarah Palin from him.
Interestingly, the BERGEN RECORD called only an hour ago, to solicit a renewal of a subcription we cancelled a year ago, and they offered the SUNDAY RECORD only at TEN DOLLARS A YEAR, so we took it. That comes to NINETEEN CENTS A WEEK, for a paper that (I think) still sells for $1.50 for the Sunday edition. We cancelled the NY Times many months ago, also, and only get the SUNDAY TIMES. They are in real desperation mode, all of them, and are making these special deals of course ONLY to beef up circulation numbers.
I got the Asbury Park Press down my way. Just as bad as the Star Ledger.
One less thing in your pile of recycling!!!
My husband has cut down his NY Times "addiction" to weekends only......
Please add me to your NJ PING LIST
We also dropped the Globe and when I told them why they hung up on me. We couldn’t take the spike in blood pressure every morning when we read the editorial page. Not a day went by when there wasn’t an article promoting the gay lifestyle. Good riddance to them and we’ve saved quite a bit of $$$.
I kept getting calls from them and “free” Thursday copies. I sorta felt sorry for the poor telemarketers and was always as civil a possible. I finally told one lady the reason and she sort of sighed and said thank you and hung up. They must have known from the date they got my call why I canceled. I had been fed up with them for years, but the Chuck Turner incident let me overcome my inertia and make the call.
Welcome to the light.
Me too!
The bottom line on a newspaper being profitable is the number of its subscribers. The more subscribers, the more it can charge for advertising which is where the profit is.
If you drop your subscription, you hit them where it hurts.
Later, if you just gotta have an issue just buy it from a machine when you need to. They dont break even on the sale of the paper itself, but need the subscribers to raise their add rates to make money.
Every once in awhile the Arizona Republic leaves a “free” copy in my drive. I call them and tell them their littering on my property is unacceptable.
I cancelled my subscription to The Waco Tribune Herald when they endorsed John Kerry. Right in the President’s own conservative back yard. Then they spent years of angst worrying that Bush seemed to be leaning towards SMU as the site for his library, not local Baylor. Go figure. Then they cancelled Ted Nugent’s column. New ownership claims to be conservative. We shall see. I read online a few times a week to keep up with local news and their editorializing.
I did the same with the Miami Herald. I would not pay a for a paper that pays pitts a salary
I ONLY take the Omaha Weird-Herald for the Sunday Coupons.
Every day this pool of sustaining subscribers recedes and shrinks according to nature's laws.
Good for you. I broke my lifelong L.A. Times habit over 10 years ago. I’d rather read toilet paper.
So many examples, but one that comes to mind is the fact that they knew for a year that McGreevey appointed his boy toy to the top Homeland Security job. But they opted not to go with the story.
They never even "noticed" that Bob Torricelli was corrupt.
It a hack journalistic front for the political machine in this state. And its written for sixth graders.
Did the same thing oh, about ten years or so ago. Agree with every point you made. I just couldn’t support the local liberal paper.
Nam Vet
Female canaries and hamsters hurt the worst.
I quit the local paper during election hell month after they decided to “not get involved” and support either W or albore. Chicken bastards.
Their letters to the editor printed conservative’s letters so infrequently, it used to make me furious.
Haven’t missed them a bit.
The paper that lands in my driveway occasionally used to mystify me until I found out that they can count those as part of their “subscribers”. Yes, they count the free papers they deliver, too. Now, I do like McGavin does, call them and tell them to come pick up their trash that’s in my yard.
I used to deliver the Bergen Evening Record when I was a kid, before it became The Record. It was a good newspaper, and I only lived a few block away.
A few years later I delivered the Newark Star-Ledger. Both were good papers. They had great sports sections, and great opinion pages. It’s a shame to see such papers become what nothing more than socialistic tripe.
We quit the Inquirer ten years ago and now I even forget what it looked like.
We canceled the Inquirer after they whined in an editorial that Republicans were “pandering to taxpayers”.
We dumped the Bucks County Courier after they whined in an editorial (written about a year after the Florio “assault weapons” ban) that too many New Jersey gun owners had “failed to turn their guns in to the authorities”.
The above quoted passages are 100% for real.
Sometimes you have to stop shaking your head and do something. We cancelled, with extreme prejudice.
I FIRED the Star Ledger years ago!
If I want a LIBERAL NEWS AGENDA, the Star Ledger is the paper for you. It’s liberal indoctrination that has a huge disdain for conservatism.
I would say that I FIRED the Star Ledger atleast 10 years ago. I will NOT line the pockets of LIEbrals.
<Going uptown or downtown was an “event” at one time.
No kidding. I remember my grandmother wearing gloves when she went out and even as a young married, my husband didn’t want me to wear sneakers downtown. Times have changed, that’s for sure!
Our local Oregonian went from 35 cents three years ago to $1.25!
I still buy it on Tuesdays to get their excellent FoodDAY section.
Ed
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