I totally get that print papers plus delivery are not outrageously expensive. I'm just thinking that digital only is overpriced.
I think print newspapers are outrageously expensive. I remember when the daily newspaper from any of the three cities surrounding my town sold for 25 cents, and then within a short period all three jumped to 50 cents. I was still willing to pay that, not every day but for the two or three days a week when I'd grab lunch at McDonalds. It gave me something to read while eating, plus it gave me a crossword puzzle to play with.
Then one of them jumped to 75 cents ... so I switched to one of the others, that was still 50 cents. Then the other two went to 75 cents, and I stopped buying. That was maybe five years ago, and then just a couple of years later they all jumped to $1 -- which is what the Sunday edition used to cost. At the same time they were raising the price, they were laying off reporters and reducing the amount of content. When the papers were 50 cents, they usually had four sections: Section 1 was national news, section 2 was local news, section 3 was sports, and section 4 was the comics and everything else that didn't fit into 1, 2, or 3. By the time the price had reached $1, they were down to two sections, and the total number of pages was typically less than the first two sections from the old days.
The "articles" weren't reporting by my definition. Mostly, they were by-lined by a hack who made the rounds of town halls in several towns, picked up press releases from the respective mayors' offices, and reprinted them as "news." No analysis, no comment, no attempt to present an opposing view for balance. Just outright regurgitation. It used to be that there were ads interspersed among the articles. More recently, I'd say 75% of the ink is advertising, and you have to look hard to find any articles among the ads.
And they wonder why they're losing readership.
