Black and white and read all over

I suspect that I am a rare breed among those in my age group. I am a longtime newspaper subscriber. I got a subscription once I was on my own after college and have had it ever since. I read the newspaper with regularity as a kid and have really never stopped.

Recent years have not been kind to the newspaper industry. The internet has cannibalized a lot of the audience because much of the content is available online for free. The Columbus Dispatch tried putting articles behind a pay wall a few years ago but eventually relented. Their reason for backing off seems pretty obvious. Not enough people were willing to pay for the content, so they just went elsewhere.

Yesterday I received a letter informing me that my subscription rate will be increasing at the start of the next billing cycle. The shocker was what the new price will be. It's going up an unbelievable 48% from when I was last charged in November and 51% from a year ago. (I'm paying about $44 per thirteen weeks of delivery. The adjusted price is approximately $84 over the same time period.)

I still prefer to read a physical newspaper, but as much as it hurts me to cancel the subscription, there's simply no way I can justify paying that kind of exorbitant increase. I expect my reaction is or will be a common one among subscribers. If this is a tactic to keep the paper financially strong, the result may hasten its death instead.

I don't know how healthy its finances are, but this reeks of desperation. I checked out the subscription rates posted online. A discount is shown only for subscribing every day. All the other packages show "convenience" as the savings off the newsstand price. The weird thing is that the Sunday only price is actually 99 cents more than what's listed on the product itself. (Perhaps this means the price is going up.) Whatever, the case, so much for considering getting just the Sunday paper. Just getting it would roughly cost what an annual subscription has been.

I guess I better enjoy the papers that will still be coming until early March. After that a regular part of my longtime daily routine will come to an end.

Addendum: I think my percentages are off and should be double what I have listed, but you get the point.