The person who sent me this included a one-word message: “Chutzpah.”
Dear Subscriber,
We wanted to let you know about a change to our home delivery vacation suspension policy.
Effective August 1, we will be offering credits only for vacation holds of 22 days or longer. Rest assured that this will not affect your ability to temporarily suspend your delivery while you are away. We will still accommodate those requests for any length of time you wish.
Remember, as a subscriber you still have access to the Globe’s award-winning coverage even while you’re away: Log in to BostonGlobe.com anytime from your phone, tablet or laptop, or download the ePaper, an exact digital replica of the Boston Globe in print.
My favorite part is the reassurance that, yes, you can still suspend home delivery. Just as long as you understand that you’ll keep paying if you’re away for three weeks or less.
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Is there a new Globe policy for Vacation Delivery Suspensions for the digital editions? Just kidding!
This is outrageous. Even if they figure that a subscriber is still getting the online news at BostonGlobe.com and they shouldn’t be getting that for free, they should reduce the rate for suspended delivery from the 7-day /$14.34 per week to the recently raised $6.93 for digital only.
They sent me a $100 “wine voucher” (for Virgin Wines) with my latest invoice, which implied to me that they are looking for new & creative ways to enhance their revenue stream.
CNHI papers (Lawrence, Salem, Gloucester and Newburyport) began this practice last year.
Dan, do you think front-office people at the Globe have run some numbers and decided now is the time to try to drive away home-delivery subscribers and prepare to go digital-only X number of days a week? I just can’t fathom the logic behind “We’re going to force you to pay for a product you don’t get unless you agree to not get the product for at least 22 consecutive days.” It’s also remarkable you announce this at the beginning of the month in which I bet the most Globe home subscribers are likely to suspend delivery for travel or vacation. For those of us who’ve been faithfully paying a LOT of money to get a printed Globe every day and keep the institution going and its journalists employed, even when that printed edition is thin and full of we read online hours earlier, this just feels like a giant eff you. This customer-alienating polic has to be incredibly demoralizing the long-suffering, excellent newsroom.
Peter, no, I don’t think that’s what’s going on. A huge amount of the Globe’s revenue comes from advertising in the Sunday print edition. I think they just wanted to join the fun. You may recall this, from our friends at GateHouse.
As the adage goes: “In the world of business if it’s stupid but works… it’s not stupid.”
Great.
The Washington Post has been doing this for a few years–I’m not sure if it’s post-Bezos acquisition (no pun intended!) or not.
Hey Dan, would be great if you could include this as a “rant” on Greater Boston. I’m so irritated about the offhanded, cavalier way the Globe announced this new policy. Feeling really screwed after 30 years as a print subscriber.