Friday, March 13, 2009

Kansas City Star starts charging subscribers extra for its television section

Talk about finding new and creative ways to insult subscribers... The Kansas City Star plans to charge subscribers an extra 25 cents a week if they want to continue getting the paper's TV supplement, according to an announcement published in the KC Star this week.
How bad are things at the Kansas City Star these days? So bad that the newspaper is now going to charge customers 25 cents extra each week if they want its flimsy, 12-page StarTV section that has been included in its Sunday paper for years.

Home delivery customers will no longer receive the section after April 5 unless they agree to pay the surcharge. In fact, if the carriers forget to deliver the paper they could be penalized up to $5 per customer.


Logistically... it will be a nightmare for carriers to determine who paid the 25 cents for the section. Also, the section is printed inside other sections. Will carriers have to pull them out of those customers who did not pay the extra quarter?


Rather than attempt a rate increase, the paper simply hopes its loyal subscribers will agree to pay for something it agreed to as part of its subscription.
As Grandpa Jones used to say, "It's not the heat, it's the stupidity."
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21 comments:

Anonymous said...

The decisions made by the "Suits" gets better and better.

Anonymous said...

amen. I can't believe they can get anyone to be a carrier in the first place, and then they want to make their job more difficult? good luck to the circulation managers

Anonymous said...

I'd pay 25 cents to see Lokeman's mugshots.

Anonymous said...

Who the CRAP is going to keep track of this brainiac idea?....printing plant staff, carriers, billing, collections.....???? I hope this idea does NOT spread.

I say to The Supreme Being(whomever there is).........please help everyone who is on this train get off before it crashes into the brick wall that we all know is at the end of this F****G tunnel!

THERE HAS BEEN A SERIOUS TORNADO IN KANSAS....and the whole cast is missing including TOTO!

Anonymous said...

Makes just as much sense as
the carbon tax.
you know, to get charged just to
breath. Words escape me.

Anonymous said...

Just another example of the brains running the Star -- into the ground! The once proud paper may soon be nothing but a memory. I feel sorry for those left after Monday's massacre. Hope the good ole boys will be able to get the paper out after getting rid of the real talent. Looks like the big glass building may soon be dark.

Anonymous said...

The Red Star will not last without Lokeman’s talent. What a rotten quirk of fate. A little libation here and there, just a girl having fun, doing wheelies, and then that damn cop had to ruin everything. A classically trained writer bites the dust, and for what?

Anonymous said...

FOR THE SUNDAY ONLY SALES ON CHARGING FOR THE TV GUIDE...Who is going to also set up the double racks in the grocery stores....one for the papers WITH the TV Section and one WITHOUT the TV Section..... and do you NOT THINK that the locals can see the cost difference????

Hello Valley Girl???????????
I really hope this is not a KC idea but something shoved down their throat from California.

Anonymous said...

@ 7:11 If you could read you would see that it clearly says HOME DELIVERY

Anonymous said...

Reality is the general MNI concept is "IF IT WORKS ONE PLACE, IT WILL WORK ANOTHER" and I am quite used to "LET'S TAKE THIS FURTHER AND GET MORE MONEY" so I just took it to the rack sales concept.

Obviously I work on the numerical/clecrical/billing/collection end of getting paid for all the "brainiac ideas" that sales/mgmt/circ implements, have to work through those details, and can often see the next tornado coming...........

Anonymous said...

again, I want to know...does ANYONE think about delivering a BETTER product as a way to save the business? Just wondering....

Anonymous said...

9:21 -- novel idea!

Anonymous said...

9:21 PM Honestly no, not even for an instant. They are completely convinced that not only are they on a higher plane of existence, but only they can determine what a good product is.

What other business aside from a complete monopoly would scoff at the notion there might possibly be a flaw in alienating 50% or more of their customer base?

It is actually even worse than that. There is the really uppity faction that literally believes that their customers are not their customers at all, but mere readers who should only absorb their divine knowledge and never question the message lest they be unenlightened....then they can't understand why people cheer their largely self inflicted misfortune.

Anonymous said...

From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

Anonymous said...

Please stop spamming the blog Les.

Anonymous said...

As if there wasn't enough going on to make people want to stop taking the paper...

Anonymous said...

If corporate officers were the ones who had to figure out how to make this delivery work - then, they would not be laying off people. It's going to take numerous hours to make this option work for all newspapers. What a group of idiots - corporate, not those still employed with McClatchy!

Anonymous said...

The same thing will happen in Sacramento with the cost being .20 cents a week.

Anonymous said...

If this is an indication of how McClatchy is asking their properties to raise cash to pay dow their debt.

I would not be shocked to see another price increase passed on to their subscribers as well.

Anonymous said...

Somebody tell the emperor that he has no clothes on!

Anonymous said...

Why waste the resources to even print this anymore? Most people get their TV schedule the same place they get their news--THE INTERNET! Maybe they should look into it.