So we’d let the newspaper lapse for a while. We rarely read it, to be honest, except on occasion on the weekends, and actually throwing away the papers is more trouble than it’s worth. But American Furniture Warehouse is doing some sort of deal with the Rocky Mountain News to provide 60-day free subscriptions for people.
Okay. And we occasionally looked at it, and did a lot of throwing away.
So, since we’re out of town for the weekend, I went to put the paper on vacation hold. Don’t want them accumulating on the driveway more than usual. But the nice, shiny web interface for such things (significantly improved over using the touch-tone phone) kept saying there was a pending vacation hold. Huh?
Called the paper, and, after wading through multiple layers of phone menus, finally talked to a rather curt lady.
“That’s a free trial subscription, sir.” The tone implied I was a dolt for not knowing that.
“Yes.”
“When did you want it stopped?”
“Well, tomorrow, and then started again on –“
The temperature of her voice went down ten degrees. “We don’t restart free trial subscriptions.”
Of course, why didn’t I know that? Well, that’s certainly a way to get people to subscribe to your paper, isn’t it? “Okay. Just cancel the whole thing, then.”
“Yes sir, thank you. Good bye.” She was off the line before I could say anything else, and certainly before she could ask me if there was anything else I might want, like a great deal on a paid subscription or something.
Well, now I have another reason to read my news online. Jerk.
Well…
When you are the owner of the only two dailies in town, you don’t need customer service.
You got to love monopolies.
Also, I’ll bet by this time next year the News and the Post will both be fee/subscriber only. For me if I could just get the entertainment/comics section for say a nickle every day, I would be a happy camper.
Plus, lately, a lot of angry nut jobs from your neck of the woods have been doing their best to entertain me in the OP/ED pages.
When you are the owner of the only two dailies in town, you don’t need customer service.
As long as folks actually think they need your product, you are correct.
I’ll bet by this time next year the News and the Post will both be fee/subscriber only.
If they keep losing their print edition subscribers, you are probably right. Though subscriptions aren’t where the money is in papers — it’s the advertising.
If I couldn’t get to the Rocky or the Post online, I would see how it would actually affect me (vs getting just national news). The nature of online news continues to evolve, and I appreciate that I am getting a better deal now than I likely will in the future.
That said, I would expect online fees to be a lot less than dead-tree editions (since the production and distribution costs are trivial in comparison).
If I could just get the entertainment/comics section for say a nickle every day, I would be a happy camper.
I get my comics online (though not all for free, it works out to a lot less). Most entertainment stuff, aside from reviews, is also available for free online.
Plus, lately, a lot of angry nut jobs from your neck of the woods have been doing their best to entertain me in the OP/ED pages.
Ah, the Margie-Won’t-Let-Me-Read-It-Because-Of-My-Blood-Pressure Section. I really couldn’t say (and am just as happy to not be able to do so). The signal-to-noise ratio in the Letters to the Editor is passingly small (and most of the opinion writers aren’t much better, just longer-winded).
We keep getting subscriptions to the local paper…in the name of the person who owned the house two owners ago.
Apparently whoever they use to do telemarketing/subscriptions ain’t too swift in collecting the correct information!
The best thing was back when I used to subscribe to the news, they had this gets-there-before-6:00am-or-it’s-free deal. It was a one year subscription that lasted for 4 and a half years because they could never get there befor 6:00am (and weekends didn’t matter because I almost never was up at 6:00am anyways).
Sadly, it all ended when the papers merged, and they dropped the deal, and doubled the rates.
As you note, monopolies can get away with a lot that competition doesn’t allow. On the other hand, that raises the question of whether the Denver metro area is willing to pay enough to make competition worthwhile.