Posted on 04/14/2009 5:19:57 AM PDT by prismsinc
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Many U.S. hotel chains like to offer USA Today, The Wall Street Journal or their local newspaper as a courtesy to guests. Marriott International Inc will offer a different courtesy: no paper at all.
Marriott said on Monday that it will stop dropping daily papers automatically at its guests' doors. Now, it will offer them a choice of papers or, if they want, no paper at all.
Based on preliminary data, Marriott projects that this will reduce newspaper distribution by about 50,000 copies daily, or 18 million annually.
Beginning June 1, guests at the company's full-service hotels who opt to receive a newspaper can choose between USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and local city dailies.
This likely would affect USA Today more than any other paper. It is the largest U.S. daily by circulation, and derives a good portion of its readership from travelers who can pick up the same paper all across the country, much like the Journal or the New York Times Co's flagship paper.
A spokeswoman for Gannett Co Inc, USA Today's parent company, was not immediately available for comment.
Wall Street Journal spokesman Robert Christie declined to speculate on what Marriott's move would mean for the paper, but said that it would likely affect only a small number of copies. The Journal is owned by Dow Jones & Co, a unit of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Marriott's move reflects a wider trend across the United States. Newspapers circulation is falling as people turn to the Internet to get news for free instead of paying for it in print. New circulation figures out later this month are expected to show a continuing deterioration in circulation.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Marriot is very environmentally friendly (or should we say: finding ways to cut costs pitched as environmentally friendly?). You have to throw your towels on the floor to get clean ones in bathrooms where towels never dry because the vent fans are either disabled or nonexistent...
Typical sequence of events for a USA Today when I find it outside my hotel room door. Pick up paper and briefly glance at headlines, place paper on desk. Do whatever I am doing for the day. In the evening move paper to the wastebasket to make way for the next day’s paper.
I will spend some time with the WSJ if it shows up.
When checking into Hampton Inn, for example, you can already check a box to receive no USA Today and get 75 cents off each day on your bill. (Hampton Inn’s fine print is in upper right, IIRC.)
I always do this, but the staff often don’t even realize that box is there, leading me to believe that many others aren’t already taking advantage of the chance to keep money instead of giving it to Gannett!
I stay at the Marriott quite a bit and am a Silver Elite member and have been signed up for the WSJ for three years and have NEVER gotten the damned thing. They ask you what paper you’d like and then ignore your choice. Every morning it’s USA Today. I’ve stopped picking it up and throwing it away, I now just step over it in the morning.
Since the Clintoon days, I have informed the front desk of any motel, hotel, inn, lodge, or resort as I check in two things:
A. I don’t want USA LIES TODAY.
B. I want the cost of the fishwrap deducted from my bill as I know it isn’t free.
The USA Today, America’s most SHALLOW paper, is good to have, in case the toilet paper runs out!
The Friday Sports Section isn't bad during football season.
ML/NJ
A better option for hotels, that might even help their bottom line while improving their business atmosphere, is already being done to some extent in high volume medical waiting rooms.
It is a wide screen TV with a looping morning news and information program and live feed on it. Those I’ve seen use the Reuters news feed.
Thus, the hotel chain could set up a small TV studio to record its chain wide broadcasts, then torrent them to all their franchises late at night for the next day.
The idea would be to encourage people to leave their rooms and come to the hotels lounge and restaurant for breakfast, yet get higher quality news than they could get on their room television.
The chain might even hire a news web-surfer to find news not carried by the news wires or major news sources, then plug in a headline and a web link.
Another contribution to the MSM/Dinosaur death watch!
Yeah, all that, or people could just use the wireless internet in their rooms if they were that worried about news.
Good news.
50,000 copies daily, or 18 million annually.
would affect USA Today more than any other paper.
Do they oblige?
Thank God Marriot is taking steps to put that paper out of business. USA Today is one of the most blatantly left-wing papers I have read. And reading the thing only requires maybe a grade level above the Weekly Reader.
About 50% of the hotels/motels will deduct 25 cents to 50 cents per day.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2228686/posts?page=4#4
When checking into Hampton Inn, for example, you can already check a box to receive no USA Today and get 75 cents off each day on your bill. (Hampton Inn’s fine print is in upper right, IIRC.)
I always do this, but the staff often don’t even realize that box is there, leading me to believe that many others aren’t already taking advantage of the chance to keep money instead of giving it to Gannett!
4 posted on Tuesday, April 14, 2009 5:33:17 AM by Gondring
Hmmm. If anything, it hassles them a little for carrying these liberal rags. I’ll remember this. Thanks.
“Hmmm. If anything, it hassles them a little for carrying these liberal rags. I’ll remember this. Thanks!”
My wife doesn’t want to go in for the check ins for that reason and my usual haggling re a reduction in price is the parking lot is basically empty.
All news fit to read is on the Internet (right here on FReeper) or Fox News. Anything else is old hat.
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