Daily newspapers have long sniped at free papers like Seattle Weekly and The Stranger with "you get what you pay for" smugness. The idea is that paid papers have better content while freebies are what they used to call in the business "throwaways." The Web has changed that. Now growing online readership is one of the few areas that offers hope to the dailies. But that circulation is almost entirely free. Some papers have tried charging for online subscriptions, but in general, it hasn't worked. Even The Wall Street Journal, which has been one of the few to successfully charge for online subscriptions, is reportedly readying to go free. So even though most daily newspapers haven't owned up to it, the fact is most are embracing a free future. Most publishers console themselves with the belief this is a temporary state of affairs and that someday the public will come to its senses and begin begging them to charge fees. That new "model" is the holy grail of publishers. Others have upped the price of their daily print editions to compensate for declining revenues. But what the Tucson Citizen did this Thanksgiving really leaped out at me. If you read Chuck Taylor's post on holiday inserts – the slick advertising sections stuffed into your turkey of a Thanksgiving paper to help kick off "Black Friday" holiday shopping madness – you'll appreciate the Citizen's chutzpah. They upped the price of that edition from 35 cents to $1.50. Now presumably that would be because such a large paper was filled with more valuable editorial content, right? Because with a paid paper, your quarters buy you better content, the theory goes. But here's how the paper rationalized its higher price: The one-day price change from 35 cents, which does not affect subscribers, reflects the value of the giant-sized advertising load that day's newspaper will carry. By tradition, the Thanksgiving Day newspaper is the largest of the year because many businesses use it to kick off their Christmas advertising. Besides all normal content, the Citizen's Thursday edition will carry at least five dozen special advertising inserts to help people begin planning their holiday shopping. Yes, the Citizen charged readers to read advertising. The move turns the whole paid rationale on its head – you pay more to read ads, not content. Readers, not the advertisers, are charged the increased cost of delivering ads. That admission risks exposing a dirty little secret of newspapers: that much of their most valued (by readers) content isn't the articles but is the advertising. One reason Craigslist has hurt the dailies so much is that it has not only drawn classifieds revenue away but it has lured classifieds readers away. The Citizen seems to be saying, hey, we know why you really buy the paper and damn it, we're going to charge you for it: You're going to pay to get those coupons! Is a Pulitzer category for paid inserts in the future?
When will they give a Pulitzer for newspaper ad inserts?
Daily newspapers have long sniped at free papers like Seattle Weekly and The Stranger with "you get what you pay for" smugness. The idea is that paid papers have better content while freebies are what they used to call in the business "throwaways." The Web has changed that. Now growing online readership is one of the few areas that offers hope to the dailies. But that circulation is almost entirely free. Some papers have tried charging for online subscriptions, but in general, it hasn't worked. Even The Wall Street Journal, which has been one of the few to successfully charge for online subscriptions, is reportedly readying to go free. So even though most daily newspapers haven't owned up to it, the fact is most are embracing a free future.
Daily newspapers have long sniped at free papers like Seattle Weekly and The Stranger with "you get what you pay for" smugness. The idea is that paid papers have better content while freebies are what they used to call in the business "throwaways." The Web has changed that. Now growing online readership is one of the few areas that offers hope to the dailies. But that circulation is almost entirely free. Some papers have tried charging for online subscriptions, but in general, it hasn't worked. Even The Wall Street Journal, which has been one of the few to successfully charge for online subscriptions, is reportedly readying to go free. So even though most daily newspapers haven't owned up to it, the fact is most are embracing a free future.
