Posted on 10/24/2006 9:58:50 AM PDT by Miss Marple
There has been much discussion about the circulation drops for major newspapers. The Indianapolis Star earlier this year started sending us a FREE Thursday paper with our Sunday subscription, even though we didn't request it.
This "conversion" as they called it (and remember, it wasn't voluntary and it is FREE) was cited in an earlier article as the reason they managed to eke out a 1% increase in their daily circulation.
Today I got my bill, which offers to give me an enitre YEAR of FREE daily papers with my "Sunday offer" (which is Sunday plus Thursday and all holidays).
This is what my statement says:
The Indianapolis Star would like to offer you the opportunity to upgrade to our 7-Day delivery package, at your current subscription rate. For the next year, if you maintain your Sunday subscription, we will deliver the 7 day package. If you would like to take advantage of this special 7-Day offer, check the upgrade box in the payment section below and return with your regular payment, today!
Marple, some things just ain't worth the money...
my local papaer did this to me multiple times. the first time I bit. Sure! I'd like to pay for four days and get seven! the problem came when my subscription was renewed - they had automatically put me down for seven days - at full freight.
I called them to put me back on weekend service, adn had to argue the point.
about midway through my subscription, they sent me the same come-on. I declined and they kept sendign me mails, and cards, etc. trying to get me to upgrade. when they phoned me, I gave them the what-for. then I cancelled completely - if they can't understand plain language, then I didn't want to do business.
newspaper circulation is tightly audited by an independent audit agency, the audit bureau of circulations. and they exist to protect the integrity of newspaper circulation for the advertisers.
Reminds me of how Time Warner stole control of AOL.
They bought the controlling stake in AOL quite legally in the open market.
I used to be a newspaper carrier. And I can confirm what lots of you have said, that they want to keep delivering even if you didn't pay; if you are a paid subscriber for weekends only or Sunday only, they also delivered weekday papers and it counted as a paid subscriber. Various promotions were done to attract new subscribers, and even if someone signed up for a low introductory offer price, it still counted in the circulation numbers to the bean counters downtown. They were less concerned with how much somebody paid than with total circulation of the papers.
And yes, there was pressure put on the carriers to sign up new accounts and keep existing ones. We did various things to do that, such as giving free extra weeks if you signed up for a year in advance and paid with Visa or Mastercard. It's an open secret in the newspaper business that circulation numbers are inflated.
The Star has become unreadable pablum. For example, look at their editorial opinion on Julia Carson a week ago, wherein they described her interview with the editorial board as "rambling and disjointed", and then proceeded to endorse her. Their other endorsements are, like the Carson endorsement, calculated to be as inoffensive and uncontroversial as possible. And yet their boosterism behind Peterson's political agenda has been simply shameful. Ah, for the paper's pre-Gannett glory days...
For my money, the Indianapolis Business Journal is the local paper worth reading.
And then again they are owned by a non-profit org that 'trains' newsfolks at their own 'university.'Libs ONLY allowed there....
I called the Houston Chronicle about the free papers, and demanded they be removed from my lawn or I would call the police and report it as litering my yard!!!!
Now I am going to go back and respond to your replies.
Well, I am ging to refuse, because I don't want to have to walk out to the curb in the cold weather to bring it in!
The ads are the only reason I subscribe. Most Sundays I take the ads and coupons out and don't even read the paper.
Send a copy of that statement to http://www.accessabc.com/, and ask them how kosher is this re paid circulation numbers.
The Dinosaur fishwraps have one corporate culture and this the Corporate Culture of lying. They lie to their subscribers and then lie to their advertisers re their number of paid subscribers.
And looky what we have found...LOTS of papers are doing this!
The amazing thing about this offer is that they will give me a whole year before they try their renewal scam.
Agreed - I stopped the Houston Comical years ago, and moved twice since then - and they still throw free papers on my new lawn - and/or a free paper when you order a pizza delivery...
Just a means of trying to inflate their circulation figures
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