Friday Follow-Up: Kansas City Star Presents Readers With EPIC Subscription Spike

More deets on a cash ask from Kansas City's struggling dead-tree institution.

Here's a note sent our way after more than a bit of sticker shock . . .

"Just got my latest monthly KC Star subscription bill. It went up from $28.03 to $35.38 per month, more than a 26% increase. And they still won't deliver any closer than 3/4 mile from my house. And even then, they'd fail to deliver about 10 times a month and never credit my account. I trained my dog to bring the newspaper each morning, but Winslow may soon be out of luck."

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com related links . . .

Subscriptions Still on the Rise at Most Newspapers in the Medill Subscriber Engagement Index

One ray of good news during the Covid pandemic: More U.S. consumers read and subscribed to local news publications. But industry experts feared that rising tide might ebb in 2022 as people headed back to work and inflation began to crimp household budgets. Indeed, there have been signs that readership was falling off.

How inflation has zapped newspaper finances - Poynter

Inflation has been brutal in 2022 and looms as the potential deciding factor in next month's midterm elections. Newspapers have had it even worse than voters. It has also been an off year for revenues in the hard-pressed sector, but expense increases have been truly terrible.

The price of paper has doubled this year and publishers are freaking out that their print magazines and newspapers are in jeopardy

The cost of newsprint has almost doubled over the past year. Publishers are now worried they may have to make cuts to their magazines and newspapers. In the UK, publishers are lobbying the government for tax credits and ad revenue to protect their titles.

Developing . . .