The Boston Herald reports that the Boston Globe will raise its prices outside of Greater Boston — not the comprehensive price hike I’ve suggested, but a start.
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12 thoughts on “Globe to raise prices for some customers”
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If I were trying to improve cash flow I would lower the price, not raise it.
I’m sure the buggy whip makers raised their prices when the Model T came out. Yep, no doubt.
Actually, you can do this with buggy whips and Rolls Royces, so long as you can have a profitable market for a few whips or a few of the most impressive car made in the world. You can do this with schools, and many products. You can do this with trade magazines and specialized publications. But, when it comes to newspapers in a geographic area, it is circulation. Without that there is no newspaper.
NewsHound: We need new models. One new model may be that, with the advertising market collapsing, readers are going to have to pick up a much larger share of the bill.Not too many examples I can point to, but Consumers Report is one — good-quality journalism, no advertising. The reader pays.
-How much are you charging for a paper?-$10 million.-Isn’t that a lot of money?- Yeah, but we only have to sell one.
I will agree with you about Consumers Report. And, maybe you are correct in your theory.But, every bit of my background is that circulation is, in the end, the only thing that is important. The entire organization has to contribute to that: editors, writers, reporters, designers, printers, and quality, timely delivery. Without significant depth of penetration in a market and reasonably priced advertising rates, the model will not work, no matter what. Of course, with weakened advertising due to the economy your point has merit. But, the fundamental job of newspapers is to do all it can to make advertisers successful and boost commerce and this can only be accomplished by selling effective advertising at rates that are profitable for the buyer. That is accomplished, in part, with good journalism but that is only part of it.
“Of course, with weakened advertising due to the economy your point has merit.”Advertising has been “weakened” for some time already. Can you say Craig’s List? I large chunk of newspaper advertising came from classified ads and many papers have lost much of that revenue to online alternatives. It wouldn’t surprise me if eBay has cut into classified advertising revenue as well.
For some reason, some CVS stores here (outside Mass.) sell the weekday Globe for $1. Most charge 75 cents. At $1:50, I’ll have to start thinking differently: The Globe today or those (rising) tolls? Tolls are likely to win.
Robin,It’s not the line classifieds that hurt. It’s the classified display. There’s virtually no employment, real estate or automotive market activity. They used to run page after page, section after section of c/d, all at premium rates. Gone. They’re not in ebay or Craigslist. They’re not anywhere.zzzzzz
Ch 4 said tonight that in greater Boston the price is increasing from 75 c to a dollar for the daily paper (outside of the area it had been $1.00 but now goes to $1.50). So it’s not some customers but all
The Globe reports this morning that daily Globes in greater Boston will go for a dollar, and Sunday Globes in Greater Boston will sell for $3.50. Home delivery prices aren’t changing at this time. The last time the Globe raised single copy prices, they increased home delivery a few months later. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the $1.50/$4.50 price point for metro home delivery before long. Wow, $58 a month is quite a bit. I wonder if they are still offering to extend half-price subscriptions if you threaten to cancel?
“There’s virtually no employment, real estate or automotive market activity.”Can you say Monster.com? etc. etc.