Want to cancel your subscription? Let me put you on hold.

[rpmmutant]

This is priceless. What a desperate tactic to keep subscription numbers up.

http://gawker.com/5219128/save-your-newspaper-dont-let-anyone-cancel

 

[Joe Williams]

Feeble strategy, which makes it believable.

I've got to think that, if you document your attempts to cancel, including dates and times of phone calls and photocopies of letters, you'd be safe from any sort of collection action, right?

Just checking because I'll be cancelling a subscription or two in the near future.

 

[stix]

On a somewhat related note, a buddy of mine that's still employed at the paper I got laid off from in October told me one of management's latest brilliant think-tank ideas was to consider asking reporters to try to sell subscriptions in their spare time, with perhaps some type of commission as a reward.

They didn't stoop to that, but I was wondering if anyone else has heard of this.

 

[crimsonace]

I worked for a circ director that used to never remove cancellations from the subscription rolls, therefore forcing the carriers to keep delivering to places who weren't paying (and therefore eat the cash).

When he got caught, he ran fast. And the newspaper's circulation dropped rather substantially. Same thing happened at 3 different shops he was at ... including one where he was publisher.

But not after his book-cooking scheme was used as a convenient excuse to can an editor (the "cancellations" were concerning, he claimed ... circulation got the numbers up, editorial isn't keeping them up).

 

[playthrough]

If you pay for a subscription through automatic credit card billing, go through them after you've tried with the paper. You shouldn't be on the hook to pay anymore.

I'm paying $5 a month for a Thurs/Sun subscription to my local "major" paper and am probably overpaying by about $4.50.

 

[DanOregon]

Maybe the LADN's consumer reporter will take it up? Or at least one of the local TV stations.
Can't wait for the LADN response, it wasn't a scheme it was just bad customer service.

 

[deskslave]

On a somewhat related note, a buddy of mine that's still employed at the paper I got laid off from in October told me one of management's latest brilliant think-tank ideas was to consider asking reporters to try to sell subscriptions in their spare time, with perhaps some type of commission as a reward.

They didn't stoop to that, but I was wondering if anyone else has heard of this.

Yes, yes we have. It's not all that uncommon, sadly.

 

[MileHigh]

Apparently, the Denver Post (owned by MediaNews) hasn't been able to keep enough Rocky Mountain News subscribers. So there's a push on now that if you take home delivery of the Post, you'll get a free poster.

Of the final front page of the Rocky Mountain News.

Someone sent me the ad/coupon for it. In the upper right corner it says "WE WANT YOU BACK."

 

[BYH]

Apparently, the Denver Post (owned by MediaNews) hasn't been able to keep enough Rocky Mountain News subscribers. So there's a push on now that if you take home delivery of the Post, you'll get a free poster.

Of the final front page of the Rocky Mountain News.

Someone sent me the ad/coupon for it. In the upper right corner it says "WE WANT YOU BACK."

Wow.

Nothing should blow my mind, but that does.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

This is priceless. What a desperate tactic to keep subscription numbers up.

http://gawker.com/5219128/save-your-newspaper-dont-let-anyone-cancel

Lean Dean hard at work here.

 

[slappy4428]

Apparently, the Denver Post (owned by MediaNews) hasn't been able to keep enough Rocky Mountain News subscribers. So there's a push on now that if you take home delivery of the Post, you'll get a free poster.

Of the final front page of the Rocky Mountain News.

Someone sent me the ad/coupon for it. In the upper right corner it says "WE WANT YOU BACK."

Then you shouldn't have left.

 

[Joe Williams]

Apparently, the Denver Post (owned by MediaNews) hasn't been able to keep enough Rocky Mountain News subscribers. So there's a push on now that if you take home delivery of the Post, you'll get a free poster.

Of the final front page of the Rocky Mountain News.

Someone sent me the ad/coupon for it. In the upper right corner it says "WE WANT YOU BACK."

Wow.

Nothing should blow my mind, but that does.

They hired about 10 journalists who had the RMN fold under them, right? With the belief that readers would follow their favorite columnists to the other side?

Doesn't surprise me if the numbers don't back that up. Individual journalists with high profiles (never mind grunts and inside crew) rarely have delivered circulation numbers when they have switched papers in better, competitive-market times. Guess it's understandable they wouldn't do that in crisis times either.

 

[MileHigh]

Yup, 11 were hired from the Rocky. And from people I talk to when I tell them I used to work there is that it's not, as you say the individuals who wrote for the paper, but the actual paper itself. The format. The flow. The whole thing put together. And that the Post is just different and they won't take it.

 

[MileHigh]

Here is the Post promotion.

 

[Joe Williams]

Yup, 11 were hired from the Rocky. And from people I talk to when I tell them I used to work there is that it's not, as you say the individuals who wrote for the paper, but the actual paper itself. The format. The flow. The whole thing put together. And that the Post is just different and they won't take it.

That makes sense to me. When I lived in a two-newspaper town, the feel was so distinct and the differences so apparent that switching from one to the other would have been like changing allegiances from the Yankees to the Mets or something.

It wasn't individual writers, who jumped back and forth. It was the mindset and everything you cited. That's what was lost.

 

[Flying Headbutt]

I had the Washington Post delivered to me for 9-10 months, free of charge, after canceling my subscription last year. I was stunned it lasted so long.

 

[trifectarich]

I've been a Sunday-only subscriber to my large daily metro here in Central Florida for a couple of years. Three weeks ago a charming lady from their circulation department called to thank me for my business and, as a way to show its appreciation, it was adding a Wednesday and Friday paper to my service at no additional charge. Two Wednesdays and Fridays have come and gone since then and the driveway is still empty.

 

[dragonfly]

I seriously doubt that's an official policy. Just sounds like they don't have any staff in the office to take the calls. Poor customer service sure, but poor reporting by Gawker as well. I don't see one attempt by Gawker to fact check this person's claims. Yes they seem to have documentation of all this, but wouldn't it have been nice for the blogger to call an editor for comment or something before printing this? These are pretty salacious allegations. Oh wait, it's the future of journalism!

 

[crusoes]

Fact check? On the Interweb? Horrors!

 

[Roscablo]

I had the Washington Post delivered to me for 9-10 months, free of charge, after canceling my subscription last year. I was stunned it lasted so long.

I think this is common practice. I've heard of a more than a few papers that do this. Funny thing, about 10 years ago the much talked about Denver Post did this to me. Then they tried to get money for the papers they sent me after the subscription ended. A good bitching them out over the phone ended the issue. Now I'm sort of surprised they didn't send it to collection. I think circ departments are kind of shady in general and always have been.