Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Sept. 19-25 | Your News & Comments: Part 3

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19 comments:

  1. The following is worth additional discussion:

    Yesterday, Anonymous@5:55 p.m. wrote this comment: "Word came down of single-copy price increases at the central Ohio papers, including most Sunday editions going from $1.25 to $2."

    Anyone know anything more about this? Any other price increases recently put into place, or planned for the near future?

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  2. Consumers love paying more for less.

    Plus, you can not get people who don't normally buy the paper to do so by increasing the cost. Especially when there are good local free competitors in most if not markets.

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  3. Too many people short-change the value of information. The kind of journalism practiced by Gannett and some other chains fails to provide the kind of actionable information that people -- readers, users, customers, whatever you want to call them -- are willing to pay for. As the information void grows, its absence will be noticed, and nimble alternate suppliers will fill the void. Much of it will be specialized information, but the debates, decisions and shenanigans of city hall, the county courthouse, the local health care scene, etc. have a way of coming into demand, especially if written and visually presented in a compelling way. That is, in a way that Dubow and the other clowns at Gannett HQ will never grasp.

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  4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  5. Last month the Asbury Park Press went up from 75cents to $1.00. But in their defence they also added colour to their nameplate.

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  6. Unfortunately we'd have to spray tan the council members and come up with plot twists every 20 minutes with the audience that exists out in the real world. We think people are interested in this stuff because we are, as are our friends.

    In reality, the market for serious journalism like NYT or WSJ is fairly thin when you compare it to consumers of TMZ, People, Perez Hilton and the like.

    So where do you want to make money, giving people the broccoli of actionable info or the donuts of celebrity fluff?

    Personally I prefer broccoli with a little cheese overtop, but loving cheese is a residency requirement here.

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  7. http://www.imediaconnection.com/summits/coverage/29936.asp

    jacobson's 15 minutes. (actually just over 10).

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  8. Lots of closed door meetings lately at Florida Today. Could another wave of layoffs be looming?

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  9. The courier post cherry hill, nj is now at one dollar daily single copy. So is the Philadelphia inquirer.

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  10. Stock price is now at 9.25 which is the 52 week low.
    What does this mean with a probable terrible third quarter earnings report due in a few weeks ?
    Revenue down ,stock price reflecting this means that the expense side of the ledger must once again be trimmed.We all know by now what that means in Gannettland .Layoffs more than likely.

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  11. God forbid they try to raise revenue instead of cutting expenses again. I disagree with much of what management does, but raising single copy sales seems like a sound decision.

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  12. Jim said...

    The following is worth additional discussion:

    Yesterday, Anonymous@5:55 p.m. wrote this comment: "Word came down of single-copy price increases at the central Ohio papers, including most Sunday editions going from $1.25 to $2."

    Anyone know anything more about this? Any other price increases recently put into place, or planned for the near future?
    9/21/2011 7:20 AM


    The Cincinnati Enquirer just raised their prices in August. The daily is now $1.00, up from $.75 and the Sunday is now $2.00, up from $1.75. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the central Ohio papers followed suit.

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  13. Sound decision 5:17 PM?

    Yes, charging 33% more for noticeably shrinking content has always worked with consumers.

    Not.

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  14. FT meetings likely tweaking decisions that were made in last round.

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  15. Unfortunately, it is a given thst there will be more circulation losses resulting from single copy price increases. some say as much as 10 to 15%. Of course single copy is a much lower percentage of total circ. the downward spiral continues.

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  16. The single-copy price for the Times of Shreveport, La., went up this year--one price for locations in our two primary coverage areas and a higher price for rack locations in the rest of the region. The message to the region: "We won't offer home delivery, we won't cover you anymore, and if by some miracle you still want to read the paper, we'll charge you more for the privlege."

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  17. I think Gannett is raising single copy prices in most markets. The thinking, I believe, is that this will also drive subscriptions. Because when you get to $1 a day and $2 on Sundays, it's supposed to be easier to sell a weekly subscription for $3.

    We'll see if it works.

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  18. Two dollars?
    That's like $60 +/- dollars per month!
    You can pay your internet bill and have access to news around the globe for that much! SMDH

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  19. It's hard for me to believe that these Ohio newspapers are worth the same amount as the Cincinnati Enquirer. Most of these papers are very small. I don't think readers will be OK with a double in price without some additional content. Also, a few weeks ago the bar codes and prices were moved from the top of the front page to the bottom of the page, so it won't be as visible to readers.

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Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."

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