Sunday, March 1, 2009

Star-Telegram raises price of papers purchased from racks or retail locations

The cost of a single Star-Telegram newspaper is going up.
The Star-Telegram will increase the price of papers purchased from newspaper racks or retail locations to $1 Monday through Saturday and $2 Sunday beginning March 30. The Star-Telegram last increased single copy prices in 1995, from 25 to 50 cents Monday through Saturday and $1.25 to $1.50 Sundays, Publisher Gary Wortel said. The Dallas Morning News raised its daily single-copy price to $1 in early February and its Sunday price to $2 last spring. USA Today also raised its price to $1 last year. USA Today does not have a Sunday edition.

From this report, the Star-Telegram is tracking with its new best friend, the Dallas Morning News.
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Hat tip: comments:
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21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just brilliant. What a great move these days when your product sucks: CHARGE MORE.

Who did this Wartel guy get his business model from? Circuit City, Mervyns or Eastern Airlines?

Anonymous said...

With all the talk of doom and gloom, the Star-T hasn't done anything but assume everyone wants the same product. I don't get why they're not trying to polish up what they have. And the re-design with the table of contents for a front page is just a huge waste of space in a shrinking news hole. Charging more right now? When I already read some of it in the DMN? Bad bidness.

Anonymous said...

It's now run like a back water third world country. Economy bad, raise the price. Makes sense to me. Sign me up!

Anonymous said...

I guess you can do 100% price increases as long as you're not disclosing monthly sales numbers. Time to adjust that stacker count downward another notch.

Anonymous said...

A current co-worker put as their facebook status:

e-reader, maybe it will save newspapers.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME! I love newspapers, I love my job, but I know its going away. We can't do the little things right but this will save us?

Can we just stop this redesign crap and go back to being a newspaper and see if that works? We need to stop following other papers doing things that DON"T WORK.

Anonymous said...

Raising the price, why - cause everyone else did it.

Go out of business, why - cause everyone else did it.

Kick Wartel in the nuts, why - cause he deserves some kind of pain.

Anonymous said...

Can we just stop this redesign crap and go back to being a newspaper and see if that works? We need to stop following other papers doing things that DON"T WORK.

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No honestly they can't. Newspapers have operated as a cartel for so many years (generations) that copying what the next guy does is part of the culture.

The only way you will see a return to the things that work, is the demise of the people who drive that culture. Sad to say, but sometimes a wrecking ball is necessary. Once that happens, local ownership will return and papers will return to a marginally profitable, community oriented entity. But first, the corporate model has to die.

Anonymous said...

Anon 7:31

swish, nothing but net. Yes!

Anonymous said...

Add in the price increase to the new weekly product rag being put out in a few weeks plus add in the Yahoo partnership and you might as well just quit putting out the daily paper.

Wortel is nothing but a hatchet man sent here to clean up the mess created by Pruitt.

Anonymous said...

The worst part is how the S-T buried this information on page B6. It just goes to show how feckless this Gary Wortel/Jim Witt co-production has all become. Godspeed, all current S-T staff.

Anonymous said...

Pay more for less. That is a tried and true media business model. Look what it has done for the Rocky.

Anonymous said...

Let's see, when something is useless, you raise the price. That plan might not work.

Anonymous said...

Week 5, Jim "Oops" Witt resignation watch. Elvis and Gary "Hatchet Man" Wortel's new-old business model: Charge more for less. Raise the price while cutting more sections and pages out of the paper. Heckuva deal, Worty. Let's maximize short-term revenue just before the circulation plummets. Do the honorable thing, Jim. Resign. And take Hatchet Man with you.

Anonymous said...

And after three rounds of chopping last year at the S-T, why is this round taking so long? Could it be that the powers that be have realized they can't cut any more worker bees and still get a product out? Oh, to be a fly on the wall when the light bulbs went on over their heads, realizing, now we have to cut management?!?!? But that would be.......US!

Anonymous said...

Sure the S-T could still get a paper out if it cuts more worker bees. But then the deadwood managers would have to do something that is alien to them: actually work instead of walking around the newsroom and playing office politics half the day in an attempt to save their non-productive butts.

Anonymous said...

I'd never pay for the diarreah the ST is printing. Never.

Anonymous said...

9:05 AM

you mean some of our ME's will have to work. They go to news meetings, have no input into the paper and then sit in their office. Now and then they walk around the newsroom and we laugh at them.

JMB, you need to go!

Anonymous said...

Just saw that the paper I work for is raising their prices. What a great idea! Didn't even see it in the paper since it is was some place that was not obvious, but then again, I have to open the paper to see the news.

I just can't stomach seeing it so it goes directly to the recycle bin.

BTW, I haven't been charged for the paper for about 2 years of home delivery. So go ahead, raise the price even more!

Anonymous said...

BTW, I left out the best part from my previous post (6:26 AM) - I work in circulation, but have nothing to do with billing.

Anonymous said...

To 7:46 am........
So the billing isn't working right now but it will be outsourced and so will Circ customer service.

(When the paper doesn't show up, you will have heck explaining why you want one delvered but....)

You think people in Manila or some other overseas country will care if you are getting the paper free? Or if you get it at all? Keep on reading and enjoy............

Anonymous said...

8:50 AM

You don't get it: I COULD CARE LESS AND DON'T WANT THE PAPER.

For $180 a year, I can donate that to my church and fell better about it.