22 Comments Add your own

• 1. !  |  May 18th, 2007 at 5:24 am

  this is truly a blessing for your parents.

  the internet opens up a huge world to them.

  open your wallet and get them a pair of matching macs?

• 2. Stephen Warley  |  May 18th, 2007 at 5:26 am

  In fact I already got my mom an ibook and I built a Google homepage for my dad . . . now I have to get him to use it! My mom loves surfing the web!

• 3. !  |  May 18th, 2007 at 5:31 am

  excellent.

  make the most of every minute with them too!

• 4. Mindy McAdams  |  May 18th, 2007 at 6:30 am

  I hate to admit that I don’t subscribe to my local newspaper, but the reason is exactly the same one you described in this post (but without the lying).

  My newspaper was missing or soaking wet two, three or four days out of every week. When I phoned the newspaper, I had to wait through a very annoying voice menu and punch lots of buttons to report the problem. And then my only chocies were: (1) redelivery — hours later; or (2) a credit on my bill. Both of these are inadequate because either way, I didn’t have the newspaper when I was ready for it (with my morning coffee).

  After more than a year of this awful service, I stopped my subscription. And I don’t read it on the Web because the newspaper’s Web site is so slow, so bloated with pop-ups, and so badly organized, it’s even more of a hassle than dealing with the hardcopy delivery failures.

  Yes, I believe this is one of the biggest reasons for readership decline. The companies cannot even get the basic task done — getting the newspaper to your door in the morning.

  And you know why, don’t you? They have stopped the practice of using young kids as delivery people and instead moved to unreliable older people who are desperate enough to work for peanuts AND pay for their own gasoline. Not a high-retention job category.

• 5. Grimmy  |  May 18th, 2007 at 6:37 am

  I’m not sure why anyone locally pays for a newspaper. Around here, people who cancelled their subscription years ago still get their paper daily.

  Wondering why that is? Well, this newspaper would rather deliver them for free than admit their circulation has dropped by a 1/3 or better.

• 6. !  |  May 18th, 2007 at 7:11 am

  how true gimmy is.

  the community paper delivers you a “complimentary” copy with the words stamped right across the front page… adds to their circ numbers AND pisses people like me off who just take it and toss it in the recycle bin.

  don’t bother to call and bitch, they give you “well, most people like the service, but in your case we’ll stop”

  which they never seem to do.

  that lady in china who owns the largest paper recycling operation in the world doesn’t mind a free copy of the grosse pointe news every week, but ! do..

• 7. "John Galt"  |  May 18th, 2007 at 7:34 am

  About two months after I cancelled my subscription to my local Gannett daily fishwrapper they phoned and said they were reinstating my subscription at no cost. Evidently it allows them to artificially inflate their circulation figures when they calculate thier advertising rates.

• 8. alan  |  May 18th, 2007 at 7:47 am

  Your mom needs to understand that she’s dealing with a low-level employee — possibily a part-timer who doesn’t care about her as a customer. Of course the “service” is going to be crappy. Have her call and ask for the supervisor, or the circulation manager or better yet the PUBLISHER. Those upper-level manager DO CARE about customer service. I guarantee you that if she calls and talks to someone with authority her problem will be resolved. Talking to the phone answerer at the paper about your service, is about as productive as talking to a fast-food counter worker about the nutritional content of your burger. Like they are really going to care!

• 9. Don Day  |  May 18th, 2007 at 7:48 am

  The local newspaper here gives away its fish wrap in the mall, at stores, downtown and other local venues.

  One day I was walking through the mall, and the guy handing out the free paper jumped in front of me and put the paper right near my face and said “take a free paper!!” Since his partner had just tried to hand me one 5 seconds and four strides earlier, he was just trying to get in my face. He activated that weird “fight or flight” reflex… and I instinctively pushed the paper out of my way and said “are you giving it away because no one buys it? smart people get their news online anyway” and kept walking.
  Still gets my riled up just thinking about it!

• 10. Jason  |  May 18th, 2007 at 8:02 am

  I still like getting the regular paper at home. The layout experience is different than online, and I find myself discovering stories that I wouldn’t have clicked on.

  Plus, I kinda like the idea that I’m paying to help support the process. It’s not much, but as citizens we can’t expect to keep getting this information for free. And as TV reporter, I still need the paper for story ideas.

• 11. Rob  |  May 18th, 2007 at 8:19 am

  I’ve never been a news subscriber here, but for some reason the local daily keeps dropping plastic wrapped advertising circulars on my lawn.

  Looking out my bedroom window I can see two of them sitting down there now. I opened one up once and it boasted that it was delivered across most of the city, but I wonder how many people like me see it as a nuisance to go out there and pick up unsolicited trash? I also wonder how much advertisers are paying to be in a circular that people like me may just be chucking without a cursory glance.

  The newspaper office is on my way to work. When they deposit their circulars on my lawn its advertising. If I returned the circulars out of my moving SUV onto their front doorstep it would be littering.

• 12. !  |  May 18th, 2007 at 8:36 am

  DD: good thing you left your sidearm at home.

  rob, i often think the same thing. check out “junkmail” on google. you’ll find there are some (though not enough yet) who say ENOUGH ALREADY.

• 13. baker  |  May 18th, 2007 at 9:21 am

  each Sunday morning at 6:00am, there’s a loud *THUD* on my front porch, occasionally followed by something being knocked over by the 30 lb. Sunday paper. it startles me every weekend and i think, “hmm, maybe this is why people don’t read the paper anymore.”

  sometimes, the paper isn’t delivered at all and i have to call someone, wait on hold, and waste my time. and i think, “hmm, maybe this is why people don’t read the paper anymore.”

  i pull the paper out of a dirty bag and recycle 3/4 of the sections immediately because i could care less about them or prefer to get more timely reuters/AP news online, and then i wonder, “hmm, maybe this is why people don’t read the paper anymore.”

  sometimes the paper’s damp, and it always leaves ink all over my hands, and the texture of the weekly magazine’s pages sends shivers up my spine, and then i wonder, “hmm, maybe this is why people don’t read the paper anymore.”

• 14. grumpyoldman  |  May 18th, 2007 at 11:46 am

  It’s still easier to take the paper into the crapper….

• 15. discreet_chaos  |  May 18th, 2007 at 12:33 pm

  I’m with Grumpy…

• 16. Swift Loris  |  May 18th, 2007 at 2:53 pm

  And if you don’t get a paper, what do you wrap your fish in?

• 17. metaprinter  |  May 19th, 2007 at 12:33 am

  Disclaimer: I am employed in the newspaper industry—

  I enjoy reading a printed newspaper because I use public transportation. I can read on the go and don’t worry about what happens to the paper wind, rain, sleet or snow. I also enjoy being a subscriber to my local paper because of the excellent local sports, politics, and entertainment coverage… something the internet is still weak at providing. In addition, my wife and I save about $50 a month on groceries from the coupons we cut. Something that drives me nuts though is leaving to go to work in the morning and NOT finding the newspaper at my doorstep. Late or missed deliveries are unacceptable in the current media market landscape. The paper should be at my doorstep by 6am if not sooner. I’m not looking for late breaking news in the paper, no one should. The newspaper should be a medium for disseminating in depth analysis and reporting.

  Read more on my blog.
  Thanks,
  Metaprinter

• 18. !  |  May 19th, 2007 at 5:54 am

  online coupons have a better roi and the data one can collect is far superior to a 1% redemption rate (which is high) that paper affords.

  the problem mass marketers have with the concept is they see all that data available and want it all UPFRONT… not gonna happen. no way. no how.

  E-A-R-N someone’s trust by actually saving them some scratch on grocery and they’ll give you all the info you want.

  you do make a good point about the paper being better in inclimate weather; hard to use your laptop as an umbrella. but i’m sure somebody is seeking private equity to develope it.

  you wondered how ! got the name invited media?

• 19. Steve Safran  |  May 19th, 2007 at 9:21 am

  A shocking admission from the LR Managing Editor: I like getting the paper every day. Truly. But man do they ever make it difficult. Bad deliveries are always an issue. Keep my paper dry. Get it to me on time. Too much to ask?

  The newspapers will eventually come for free. They will have to.

• 20. discreet_chaos  |  May 19th, 2007 at 7:27 pm

  Steve - There’s nothing embarrassing about getting a paper, especially a good paper like the Globe, As it may be with you, but for me, the morning paper is a ritual and there have been times, when its very presence reassured me that all is right with the world.

• 21. Nate  |  May 20th, 2007 at 9:14 pm

  I loathe my local Gannett paper, The Sheboygan Press. Their idea of a ‘new look’ was revealed in January, and it’s pretty much daily columns which say ‘hey look, the elderly exist! They have great advice!’ or ‘This family is great, and here’s why’, and ‘This woman volunteers.’. Their news coverage is pretty much all AP, the local stuff is word-for-word from fire and police press releases, opinions scream the most obvious conclusion and they feature columnists who were influential…back in the 70s (Dr. Peter Gott). I can read all of their local news on the web and haven’t bought a copy of the Press in years.

  But still, the Press goes after me at my doorstep. First with their Shoreline Chronicle shopper (which I have actually given right back at the carrier several times), and a new effort called ‘The Citizen’ which is…all the positive stories from the Press. Gee thanks, I like getting informed about something I don’t care about and having to recycle your lame attempt to justify a paper which is printed in Fond du Lac like all the other Gannett papers in East Central WI (an hour away).

  Yet…I subscribe to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. I get great service (it’s very rare if a paper doesn’t come before 5am), their news seems well-researched, and they have columnists I like reading, not just the old sports editor from the 40s remembering when Sheboygan had an NBA team. They always put the paper in a plastic bag, and unlike the Press, which depends on way too many gift card/gas offers for subscriptions (read: selling your name to anyone who asks), the JS people have never really bugged me on the phone, or sold my name. I really enjoy subscribing to them.

  I find it pathetic that I enjoy a paper from 50 miles away much more than one that’s 10 blocks away from me…or that I can enjoy USA Today much more than the local Gannett product.

• 22. trolling for columbine  |  September 25th, 2007 at 5:45 pm

  I love to hump newspapers

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