Actually, they just blogged this better bit of journalism from Poynter:
The strange case of the $846 subscription offer to the Kansas City Star
Here's their hot take:
The strange case of the $846 subscription offer to the Kansas City Star
Here's their hot take:
Is a Kansas City Star subscription worth $846? - Kansas City Business Journal
When a Star subscriber got an annual renewal notice for $846.66, a journalism industry trade publication set out to find out what was going on with the area's biggest local newspaper. Poynter's sources said it's a new circulation strategy, one event called it "reverse redlining."
All publishing is going this way, targeting higher-end consumers, and/or higher sub prices, fewer discounts, locking consumers into auto-renew, or billing subs quarterly or monthly instead of, say, a one-time lump sum of $846 -- which sounds outrageously screwed up.
ReplyDeleteI canceled my Star subscription three years ago when they not only repeatedly hiked the price, they failed to deliver the paper an average of four out of every seven days. The most important asset a newspaper can possess is credibility. When the Star repeatedly failed in delivery, and repeatedly vowed to fix the problem, then didn't, their credibility evaporated.
ReplyDeleteYou can buy a great smart phone for the $800+ and get all the news from multiple sources and much much more.
ReplyDeleteWhy would anyone waste that kind of money on the pitiful Star?
The local reporters are a bunch of kids just out of J-school who can't even find their way around the metro and the rest of the "news" is from other papers an wire services.
An amateur newspaper for a fly-over cow town.
Excellent point. And the news on the phone is real time vs day old. The Star is an embarrassment to KC and I always wonder what visitors from cities with real papers think.
DeleteIs this a JOKE? Who would pay to read that rag?
ReplyDelete7:42 +1
ReplyDeleteDropped subscription in 2000 and never looked back. Had enough of Yell Habbadacy's blather.
ReplyDeleteFor God's sake folks!
ReplyDeleteI don't suggest anyone pay for a Star subscription, but if you must have it, pay as you go, no more than monthly payments.
The Star could go belly up at any time. You DO NOT want to pay them in advance for a quarter, half, or full year.
the economics of the legacy newspaper business just don't work anymore in kansas city.
ReplyDeletea couple of other mcclatchy papers we've seen are much better.
If you absolutely have to read the Star, check out your local library for a free copy. Sometimes people take the paper home with them after they read it. Only a few branches of Mid-Continent require you to check it out using your library card. No cost - just sign up for the free card.
ReplyDeleteA Fool and his money soon go separate ways .A STAR and it's Price Gouging Soon go out of business. Where is The Attorney General on this one. The Next Missouri Senater .
ReplyDeletehacks.
ReplyDeleteIt's easy to be gleeful about the Star trainwreck, but it's bad for Kansas City.
ReplyDeletewow, we thought $540 was too much. $800 is absurd.
ReplyDeleteThe Star has been struggling for many years now. I used to have a subscription, but dropped it after delivery issues that the Star seemingly didn't care about.
ReplyDelete