Newspapers Are Charging Extra … to Give You More Ads
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Jim Romenesko reported this week that both the Chicago Tribune and the Detroit Free Press have notified subscribers that they will be charged extra to receive issues of the paper published on Thanksgiving Day, and perhaps other days as well. The Tribune informed subscribers that special "premium issues" such as the one on Turkey Day will incur an additional charge of $2 apiece, while the Free Press plans on charging print subscribers the Sunday cover price ($1 more) for the Thanksgiving paper.
Why? Apparently, it's because the paper will be overloaded with Black Friday circulars. "The Thanksgiving print edition includes Black Friday sale information, coupons and details about incredible door busters!" a Free Press letter told subscribers.
The Thanksgiving papers are heavier than normal editions, so they're therefore costlier to produce and deliver. Still, ads have traditionally been sold in order to keep newsstand and subscriber prices down. Bizarrely, here we have an instance in which the presence of more ads is being used as a justification to charge customers extra. As the Consumerist pointed out, in the case of the Tribune, "they’re calling this paper a 'premium issue' even though the majority of the extra content is advertisements. That companies pay the newspaper for."
Granted, "extreme couponers" and Black Friday shopping fanatics love such ads. Forrester analyst Sucharita Mulpuru has explained that the pull-out ad sections of Sunday papers are essentially a "destination" that a sizable segment of consumers enjoy wading into and exploring. The fact that Sunday circulars are more of a draw for some "readers" than, say, the editorials or even the sports section has to depress the already depressed journalistic masses to no end.
As for the loyal subscribers who actually read the paper and put up with ads in order to keep print prices down, they're surely peeved by the moves being attempted by the Chicago Tribune and Detroit Free Press. At least both papers told Romenesko that if subscribers are upset with the extra charges, they can be credited the amounts by calling up customer service.