In the category of holiday gifts nobody wanted, we have this:
Gannett said Wednesday it will begin inserting a condensed edition of USA TODAY daily into 31 additional newspapers early next year, a distribution strategy aimed at both beefing up local publications’ content and widening its national paper’s reach.
Oh, Lord. Last time I “read” USA TODAY (Gannett insists on ALL CAPS), when it was left for free outside my hotel room, it took me about five minutes. And I regretted wasting the time. The paper is bland, boring, bottom-feeder stuff that’s pitched for probably a fifth-grade reading level.
Gannett isn’t saying which 31 papers will be first in line for the insert. But the New York Times says that eventually, all 81 Gannett papers will be “enhanced” with USA TODAY filler. Inclluding your beloved Burlington Free Press!
The reason? Ad sales, of course. The Times reports that Gannett “experienced a deep dip in third-quarter advertising revenue this year” and:
By incorporating USA Today into local papers, Gannett is able to increase the national paper’s circulation by roughly 1.5 million readers during the week and 2.5 million readers on Sundays, and then try to sell advertising against these larger numbers.
Hey presto! Instant doubling of your official circulation! As for the readers, well, they’ll take it in the shorts:
Asked whether prices would rise for subscribers receiving the extra USA Today content, a Gannett spokesman, Jeremy Gaines, said, “As we introduce enhanced products, consumers tell us they are willing to pay for the added value we’re bringing them.”
In other words, yes, it’ll cost you more to subscribe.
Y’know, print is declining for many reasons. But the business practices of Gannett and other big chains are part of the problem, not part of the solution.
for “added value”, I suspect that they mean something entirely different than the national lite filler they’re going to get. The last thing the BFP needs is junk fluff on stories of national significance that can be read elsewhere (and often with greater insight)for free. And to see their subscription rates increase? Yipes. The Gannett folks better get ready to see a wave of subscription cancellation notices.
They’ve been seeding the local news with U.S.A Today cast offs for several years now.
Slowly but surely we’re going to be getting the same old USA Today that most of us only read when we’e stuck in an airport and have run out of everything else, but we’ll be required to pay for it now in order to get a miserable two pages of regional news.
This is one subscriber who is this far from cancelling as it is.
I’m sick and tired of paying for recycling paper that I don’t want and don’t need just because I can’t pay to read the Free Press online without also accepting the daily shredded tree delivery.
Every day they run stories that are stale because they’re days behind the actual news, and days behind the time we read about them in other sources.
And that’s even taking into account the fact that it’s been months since they’ve gotten the paper to my house on time.