OT Hartford Courant Subscription Rates ???

[Huskybass]

My wife would like to keep receiving the newspaper despite recent increases in subscription rates. She likes getting the Sunday paper and reading the ads, etc.

13 weeks just went for $67 and change to $90 and change. I explained to the representative that I can get all the content I want online. They agreed to drop the 13 week subscription back down to $67.47.

My question is: Will The Courant offer substantially better rates than $5.19 per week? Any input appreciated. Thanks.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

News organizations need to start charging for online content or they will not exist in 5 years. Why would print subscribers want to subsidize online viewers? I don't.

 

[Waquoit]

I went through the rig-a-ma-roll. The folks on the phone are from India and there is only so much you can do. You can get Thur - Sun for cheaper. Like $1.25 a week. But you might have to quit the paper for 30 days than get the new subscriber rate. That's what I ended up doing.

 

[RoderickSpode]

News organizations need to start charging for online content or they will not exist in 5 years. Why would print subscribers want to subsidize online viewers? I don't.

Trouble is, most people wouldn't pay and instead get their online news from aggregators, bloggers or TV news websites. The New York Times original attempt at a paywall (about 5 years ago) failed, and while the second version seems to be working thanks to the rise of mobile devices, it helps that they have national, even global appeal. For a smaller paper like the Courant, a paywall might just mean a faster death.

 

[Prezidint]

News print is dying a slow death and will eventually be dead in all but major cities, as its main viewership gets old and dies.

I read the HC a month or two ago for the first time in years. Was a skinny, flimsy shell of its former self specializing in car crashed, tag sales, local sports, and weather.

Regarding "subsidizing," the fact is that online generates revenue. If the owners of the paper want to take a loss on the online portion to pay for the paper portion, that's a business decision. There are 5-7 advertisements on the splash page of the website.

If you want to pay for the relatively huge expense of processing paper, printing it, and delivering it to your doorstep everyday, that's a business decision as well.

In the end though, as long as the Internet is still relatively free, younger people are going to migrate away from using TV or paper to get their info - it's restrained, it's biased, it's static . . . why go with that when, with a few clicks, you can get perspectives from all over the world?

Reading newspapers for news is like reading the front and back cover of a book to try to understand what's going on inside the book.