Just got word — unconfirmed at this point — that the cost of the Asheville Citizen-Times will jump from 50 cents to 75 cents a day if you buy it out of newspaper racks on the street.
Little stickers stuck on newspaper racks in West Asheville are a testament to the news. Price increase starts Monday.
This is a big development, and not new for newspaper companies desperately trying to staunch the financial bleeding. Bigger newspapers around the country have recently raised prices. Other newspapers are considering changing formats to cut down on newsprint costs and other measures to make up lost revenue.
The big debate over a price increase is: if you raise the price, will you drive down your circulation? Is the Citizen-Times worth 75 cents a day? Will subscription rates increase?
Got any more information? Please leave a comment or email me at sweetashvegas@hotmail.com.
7 Comments
Why would anybody even think of paying for the print paper wen you can scan it in 2 minutes online for free?
To start, there is not much in the ACT these days. Certainly not any hard news, investigative reporting or interesting features. The columnists are lame, especially Susan Reinhardt and John Boyle. Business, world and state news are minimal. The editorials mean nothing and carry little weight in the region. All the classified advertising has moved to craigslist.
The Citizen-Times was a weak newspaper to begin with and it has gotten worse in recent years. You can find out a lot more about whats going on right here on on ashvegas and in the Mountain Express for sure.
This price increase will cause the already declining circulation numbers to fall as much as the stock market has in the past month.
The quality at the AC-T has gone down steadily for years, and Gannett has accelerated that trend.
It is rarely worth 50 cents, and for 75 cents…I doubt I’ll be buying an issue for a while.
There is too much good news reporting available for free digitally to be bothered with buyig a 75 cent paper.
Even though I firmly believe the ACT is a waste of good trees that I could be using as mulch. I feel if the raising of prices saves a few jobs, so be it. I know some very kind people at the ACT with families that depend on them. It is not their fault that Gannett Inc. dropped the ball on ramping up the digital side of the business a few years back. As for the paper, my opinion is that everything written in house should be front and center and everything else should be second string. The ACT has some great writers that need to be let out of their Gannett shackles to show off their talents. Who cares what Gannett thinks, it is Do or Die, you either grab the horse by the reins or you get bucked off. It’s time for a mutiny, a good old down home Boston Tea Party. What are the thugs at Gannett gonna do, threaten you with another Lay Off.
To answer the question posed in the post, from 50 cents to 75 cents day is quite a jump. I’m a subscriber and am generally happy with the paper, although I haven’t heard if my rate is going up. However, they really need to beef up some sections of the paper (such as the aforementioned business section) to make people willing to pay that much more at the newsstand.
I used to buy the Sunday paper, but by the time you take out all the ads, coupons & classifieds there was hardly anything left.
Is it even worth 50 cents a day?
The C-T desperately needs to revamp its business section. Most days it’s one or two pages at the back of the sports section, and most of the news is from the wire. That’s a terrible disservice to the people and businesses who make up so much of their advertising revenue.