Newspapers don’t want you anyway
Michael Gay October 1st, 2007
According to the NY Times, newspapers are down about 10% in readership since 2000. (Doesn’t that number sound low?) But this quote from the article really caught my attention, “many papers have decided certain readers are not worth the expense involved in finding, serving and keeping them.” It’s an interesting tactic, but the bottom line is if the paper has to run specials, promotions or discounts to get the reader, then the reader isn’t worth it since they will likely cancel their subscription when the special ends.
3 Comments Add your own
1. Hussman | October 1st, 2007 at 6:16 am
This isn’t any different than TV stations or cable networks that try and focus on a specific target viewer.
2. Joe G. | October 1st, 2007 at 7:03 am
“Many papers have decided certain readers are not worth the expense involved in finding, serving and keeping them.”
Yeah, I bet those grapes would have been pretty sour anyway! Maybe I was wrong about newspaper Belo being able to make it after all.
3. Frank Catalano | October 1st, 2007 at 5:43 pm
Sometimes newspapers are their own worst enemy in customer acquisition.
Recently, I decided to try USA Today home delivery. I found a good trial offer on their Web site — $14.00 for the first eight weeks, then $13.95 for each four weeks thereafter. I signed up.
Within three days — before the subscription even started — I was charged twice, $14 and $13.95 to my credit card. After three calls, it became clear USA Today was convinced its own files showed no record of the dualing charges. So I disputed it with American Express and cancelled the subscription.
A month later, USA Today apparently “found” the missing second charge and restarted my cancelled subscription without notice. I cancelled it again, but not before they notified me it would be automatically renewed.
American Express has had to made at least a half-dozen adjustments to account to USA Today’s odd billing practics. I’ve had to spend at least 3+ hours on the phone with both USA Today and American Express. I have finally sent a letter to USA Today’s chirpy customer rentention department asking them to completely wipe my customer record from their records, so they can’t accidentally resubscribe me again.
Some subscribers not worth finding and keeping? Seems they’ve taken this to extremes and, in this case at least, created true customer prevention policies.
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