Detroit papers DOUBLE their daily newsstand price

The Detroit News and Free Press announced that they'll increase their Monday-Saturday newsstand price from 50 cents to $1 in metro Detroit. The Sunday Freep will still be $1.50, but it'll no longer be $1 at selected stores (like the Walgreens I shop at).

Nothing like doubling the price after cutting the product in half.

Yeah, let's kill the product some more.

Jerks

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20090917/FREE/909179977/-1

 

Meanwhile, they'll probably tout their free website to customers.

 

But they're giving the son of a bitch away free online.

What the hell sense does that make? Please, any CEO out there peeking in. Please, tell me.

 

Our itty-bitty rag is doing the same thing. No monopoly on the brilliant ideas to destroy the business.

 

I was looking for a CEO. Not a former Royals shortstop...though I know that you too have witnessed the rotting of a franchise. The 80s and the royal blue roadies are long gone.

 

With this Motown wisdom, why don't newspapers just charge $1 million per copy. That would solve their money woes. Even a couple hundred die-hard subscribers would really carry the load for all the free-riders online.

 

You guys are so short sighted. When this internet fade goes away, newspapers will be the only way people get their news! Then we'll be rich!

 

I'll bet they make more money because of this, which is the whole point of everything.

Newsstand prices, by and large, haven't gone up nearly enough in the past 20 years or so, in my opinion. Fifty cents is an awfully low price, considering what you're getting, and considering you probably were paying 50 cents for the same paper in 1990. Charging 50 cents is almost like writing "This product is almost totally worthless, but we'd appreciate your charitable 50-cent donation" on the box.

Now, whether you want the product is another question, but there remain a lot of people who do want the printed paper and will be willing to pay an extra 25 or 50 cents for it. And, by the way, maybe we should think about these people -- the ones who pay for our product -- a little more often than we do.

 

A sampling of comments --

jg48386 wrote:
I prefer the online edition anyway.

TS Galloway wrote:
Valuable local content? Where? I've never seen a bigger collection of wire service stories and full page ads in any newspaper.

132358 wrote:
35 cents to 50 cents = 43% increase. Now a 100% increase. How stupid. I'm out.

JamesBoise wrote:
I know I won't buy that product for $1.00. This is the end of the actual printed newspaper for the Freep and News.

James OHara wrote:
What a great idea! Now they won't sell any papers at the news stands.

tylerarb wrote:
Doubling prices at a time when these newspapers are selling a thinner product whose demand already is declining and doing so in a severe economic slowdown?

Terry from Troy wrote:
If the printed copies are not selling now at $.50 per copy during the week because of the Internet and tough times in Detroit, how does the logic work that doubling the price will help?

 

FYI, a number of Gannett papers boosted their price last year by 50 percent (typically going from 50 cents to 75) and the fallout was minimal at many. Snitches tell me that some papers that were budgeting for a 20 percent drop say circ only slip by 6-8 percent. Obviously that turned out to be profitable.

However, doubling the price in recession-ravaged Michigan sounds like a whole different ballgame.

 

Is this the DNA's way of trying to kill off The Detroit News? The Free Press is the dominant paper in the JOA. The two papers are in the same building (different entrances) and have the same business and printing operations. The News doesn't publish on Sundays.

If stand sales fall like I think they will, I can't see how the DNA can continue to support two papers when they're already on shaky ground.

This could be the death knell for The News, something maybe the DNA wants.

Man, that sucks.

 

The way Gannett is managing its papers reminds me of owners who set fire to an unprofitable restaurant for the insurance money.

Even if you think subscription/newspaper prices haven't kept pace with the economy, it seems like a strategy to get people to stop reading.