Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't they also double the newsstand price from 25 to 50 cents in the last year? Perhaps that's what they meant by "budgetary decision" being the reason for the 8% drop in circulation.
The Times isn't going anywhere. They've now got close to 100% of the market share in Seattle and will be able to ride that for years to come.
I already stopped paying for the Seattle Times - and got a NY Times subscription - man, that is way too much paper, I miss when the WSJ wasn't a Socialist Republican rag that infected news coverage with it's America-hating stances.
50 and 75 cents are the going rate for daily papers in most cities I've been in the last several years. I don't know of any big city dailies that have been 25 cents in the recent past.
Alright, it went up from 50 to 75 in the past year. I don't know for sure, because I only occasionally read that rag.
The point is, they had a 50% increase in price and an 8% decrease in circulation, which is a big gain in revenue (though not good for ad revenue). Now, with the PI gone, they've got their readership back and then some. The Times is much stronger financially today than they were 3 months ago.
I believe that a very small percentage of income comes from the actual cost of the newspaper. So while it would be nice if that price change would save them, I highly doubt it.
@13: Yeah, forwarding an non-confidential e-mail that was distributed to 1,000 employees can hardly be described as being leaked. But if it makes Eli feel like a big-time journalist...
@1: Your ignorance is showing. McClatchy doesn't own the Times, so it can't exactly unload it. The best it could do is sell (or give away, if it's as worthless as they're claiming) its share back to the Times. Not likely to happen.
"Thanks to the quality and appeal of The Seattle Times newspaper"
Oh, and the fact that we violated two Washington State Law statutes by automatically converting subscribers under a negative option marketing ploy. That mighta' had something to do with this "success" too.
Blethen, your conscience is calling. Should we keep taking messages?
Count me as another PI subscriber that is so done as soon as my carryover subscription is used up. I suspect there are losts of PI readers like myself. Expect double digit decreases with the next audit release.
They tried last year and they've effectively stated that their ownership stake is worthless.
The Times is done.
The Times isn't going anywhere. They've now got close to 100% of the market share in Seattle and will be able to ride that for years to come.
The point is, they had a 50% increase in price and an 8% decrease in circulation, which is a big gain in revenue (though not good for ad revenue). Now, with the PI gone, they've got their readership back and then some. The Times is much stronger financially today than they were 3 months ago.
The memo you posted was "leaked" by a Times staffer?
Your post went up at 9:50 a.m.
At 9:36 a.m., the same memo was posted nationwide on Romenesko's media column on the Poynter Web site.
Doing the math, you're congratulating yourself for having a staffer "leak" a memo that was already nationwide 14 minutes earlier.
Scoop on!
And, with all of the PI subscribers on board now, their ad revenue will probably go up too.
"Thanks to the quality and appeal of The Seattle Times newspaper"
Oh, and the fact that we violated two Washington State Law statutes by automatically converting subscribers under a negative option marketing ploy. That mighta' had something to do with this "success" too.
Blethen, your conscience is calling. Should we keep taking messages?
Ex-P-I Subscribers Hanging in; Times Circulation Soars
Newstand sales are the LEAST of their problems.