Why are newspapers losing circulation? (Sacramento, Paradise: house, buy, tax)

[mgforshort]

Last year we paid $ 1.48 a week for subscription to the excellent "Sacramento Bee" newspaper. The price includes unlimited daily online access to the entire newspaper, plus the SUNDAY ONLY print edition, which is delivered to our house in Paradise, once a week.
For January 2018, the cost per week went up to $ 1.94. That is a whopping 31% increase.

Actually I prefer the online edition, my hands don't get dirty and it's easier to find things quickly. Also, we all like to save the trees, don't we?

So, to reverse the price increase, I called their customers service and requested that they change us from the print and E-edition to the E-edition only.

Now comes the shocker. By canceling the print and pay for the E-edition only our cost would rise to $ 2.48 per week; same as the seven day print edition.
I thought the service rep was wrong and requested a supervisor. After 10 minutes on hold, they disconnected me. I called again, got another rep and she told me exactly the same.
Since I refuse to pay 31% more, (go ahead, call me a cheap old bastard) I canceled our subscription. I didn't get a 31% pay increase this year and I don't know anyone who did.

If the service rep would offer me the E-edition for $ 40 or $ 50 for a year, paid in advance, I had our Visa card ready, next to the phone. Sadly, there was no such offer.

My understanding is that newspapers and magazines are desperate to reverse the decline in their circulation as more and more people use their phones, computers, and television as a news source. So, as the demand goes down, up goes the price. I never took business administration, but I believe this must be lesson number one:
Don't raise the cost when demand is down.
Dear members of City Data, I'd like to read your comments.

[BlakeJones]

I think they get more money from physical mailers and ads inside real print papers

[mgforshort]

Originally Posted by BlakeJones

I think they get more money from physical mailers and ads inside real print papers

That might be true, but the E-edition carries all the ads from the print edition, and top of all that they have the annoying pop-up ads all over.

[movinon]

This is exactly why I cancelled my subscription. I had the same plan as you did. Now I buy the Sunday Sac Bee for $.99 at the .99 Store on my Sunday trip to Winco. In addition the delivery service was very unreliable - many Sundays it never came at all and the voicemail box would be full so no way to get anyone. After beating my head against the wall week after week, I said "enough". I sort of miss the E-edition but I can still read articles and that's OK with me. And I'm not the only one - several of my neighbors have cancelled their subscriptions for the same reasons.

[Adriatica]

If you have a Sacramento library card, you can read the digital edition online for free. Sacramento Public Library - Online SacBee platform is changing

[cb73]

I had weekend-only for about a year, but the renewal price seemed like it went up regularly, and delivery was sporadic at best. And it didn't seem possible to talk to anyone about it. So I cancelled.

Since then I've gotten at least 100 calls from Sac Bee telemarketers trying to get me back. So they're willing to spend any amount of money to get you back, but not a dime to keep you.

[movinon]

^^^^^^This! That's what happened several years ago when I switched from daily to Sunday only. This time I told them I was moving out of the area (a gross exaggeration) just to get them to go away. So far, so good.

[CAHntr]

I'm surprised papers don't consider an online version only for somewhere around $50 a year. From what I've seen, it looks like double that rate for the Times and even more for the Bee. Now if you're a student, the WSJ has a $49/year special.

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

Even before newspapers were all online, I stopped my subscriptions because I found I had piles of newspapers to recycle that I never had time to read. Nowadays, I can Google any info I want. For instance, today I saw a free online news story that referenced a town hall meeting between candidates for CA governor, so I Googled it and found a website where I could watch the town hall debate for free online.

Just saying - if I want to find info, I can find it for free online. And I am able to watch PBS Newshour for free online every day.

So, the local newspapers don't get to count on my money. They have to offer me something better than I can get for free. So far, they are in the dark ages on that point - so I fear they will go the way of the dinosaurs.

Most newscasts are now available on Youtube for free. And I don't normally also have to watch any commercials.

I'm 61 years old, and I've figured this out. So, I have to assume they are on their way out.

The only thing that makes sense, is that the newspapers are a tax write-off. I used to work in radio, and learned that many radio stations are purchased with the intent to lose money, as a tax write-off. So, perhaps the Sac Bee is now just a write-off for some larger corporation? Probably.

[shelato]

I found the online version of the Bee annoying and pretty much unreadable, but surprisingly the version that you get for free from the Sacramento Public Library was much easier to read. What I did notice is that when I used to read the Bee in the paper format, I read a lot more articles than I did online (even though it has the same content) But I found if I was going to read something online, I would rather read stuff from a news source with better writers and a better format like say the New York Times, Vox or Drudge, so I ended up canceling the Bee shortly after switching from paper to digital.

If I had to guess I would bet the Bee dies before Betty White, how many people under 60 still read anything published by the Bee?