Chicagoist: The Trib Raises Prices, Online Content

bobnweave

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 11:47:37 -0600

Just wonder why my trib subscription fund that lame @ss RedEye for young'uns who are too cheap to buy a paper and too clueless to realize they are just reading worthless drivel and advertising. Then again, maybe that's all the Trib is offering these days too. . . . ??

matilda

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 10:32:31 -0600

"I guess I will spend more time online." I, too, think the quality of the Trib has gone down, but where online does one actually get hard-news, in-depth and investigative reporting about Chicago on a daily basis? I don't see unpaid or low-paid bloggers or so-called citizen journalists taking up the slack, unless, of course, you are mainly interest in an in-depth examination of Tuesday night bar specials.

fed up

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 09:50:34 -0600

I used to love sitting down with a cup of coffee and reading the paper usually when I am supposed to be working. The sad fact is the number and quality f the stories is down and the price is up. I guess I will spend more time online.

the new guest number 2

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 08:46:24 -0600

Why would someone that has "no special affection for newspapers" even want to take any risks? I hope your optimism is correct, but I don't think that Zell has even an inkling of what it takes to make a great paper people want to read. I think those "risks" are going to come in the form of more empty crap like entertainment gossip and Drew Peterson. But again, hopefully I'm wrong.

Kevin Robinson

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 22:43:29 -0600

I don't doubt for one minute that Sam Zell is interested in anything more than making a buck. He's said as much. I just think that privately held newspapers are beholden to a different profit motive than publicly traded media companies. The stock market demands growth every quarter; private owners can take different risks than a publicly traded company can.

Kevin Robinson

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 22:40:25 -0600

the new guest number 2

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 19:54:38 -0600

I'm looking forward to Sam Zell taking over the Tribune. Once someone can run that paper for a reason other than increasing profits each quarter, I think we'll start to see some better content. What on earth makes you think Zell is concerned with anything *other* than profit?

Spook

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 19:48:32 -0600

I agree with you BFA on the "if the Tribune Company charged a dime for Redeye, readership would drop more than 50%" , but I also think that raising the price of the Trib will cause a sizable percentages of the idiots who read the tribe more for the sports and comics than for the news to say, “ how dare they raise the price! I will show them, I’m gonna read the Red Eye and it sure is more interesting any way!

Kevin Robinson

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 18:44:11 -0600

Chicagolive.com will also serve our advertisers That sentence right there might be a good place to start if the Trib wants to know why circulation is so down. As far as I'm concerned, part of the problem with the newspaper industry is that publications are traded on the stock market, making them beholden to shareholders, not the public. I'm looking forward to Sam Zell taking over the Tribune. Once someone can run that paper for a reason other than increasing profits each quarter, I think we'll start to see some better content.

BFA

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 18:00:26 -0600

Please ... comparing RedEye to Tribune ... what a joke. I am willing to bet that if the Tribune Company charged a dime for Redeye, readership would drop more than 50%.

ljpljpljp

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 16:50:44 -0600

I remember The Tribune. That's the paper where they publish press releases and pass them off as reporting. Wait, I still get the Sunday edition, but I just do it for the coupons and advertising pull outs.

Spook

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:50:49 -0600

I wish there was an economist to calulate the run-over-rise Red Eye readership increase with the Tribune price increase

matty

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:30:48 -0600

There was an interesting article about how the nytimes has decreased the "weight" of each online page it sends out. That is to say, the file size of each page. The tribune needs to seriously reduce page size if they want to keep their page hits rising.

matty

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:27:47 -0600