Chicagoist: Your "I Just Read It On The El" Excuse Is Bogus On Saturdays

May 5, 2008

Your "I Just Read It On The El" Excuse Is Bogus On Saturdays

Wow. The Red Eye has 100,000 Saturday subscribers. It's free, sure, but sweet sassy molassy, that's a lot of people. The Trib's Saturday circulation is 428,936, the Sun-Times's is 225,383, and the Daily Herald's is 134,585, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. [Editor and Publisher, ABC]

By Margaret Lyons in News | Link | Comments (21) | Recommend this! |

Tags: media, red eye

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Comments (21) [rss]

[1] | 05/05/08 04:55PM

The article says you have to request delivery, but there are always four copies of that damn rag showing up outside my apartment's front door, and there's always still four copies down there on Monday.

[2] | 05/05/08 05:00PM

it's been chucked over my fence once in a while along with the Hoy and LaRaza that I also use for grill kindling. I really do wonder how many of those they count as "circulation"

[3] | 05/05/08 05:01PM

It's 5 pages of Sudoku wrapping.

[4] | 05/05/08 05:38PM

Red Eye: bcuz USA 2Day makes my hed hrt

[5] | 05/05/08 06:02PM

those numbers are no doubt inflated

[6] | 05/05/08 07:21PM

Chris F - same situation at my building. I honestly don't think anyone has actually requested the thing.

[7] | 05/05/08 07:40PM

I've called and begged them to STOP throwing them into our yard, but no dice. They're basically circulation whores.

[8] | 05/05/08 08:07PM

Literally, thirty seconds before reading this my phone rang:
Voice: "blah blah blah... We're going to offer you a month of Red Eye delivery for free."
Me: "No, thank you."
Voice: "What?"
Me: "I'm not interested."
Voice: "What?"
Me: click

[9] | 05/05/08 08:12PM

Years ago when I worked for a midsize daily, we published a weekly TMC (Total Maket Coverage) product, which was little more than a couple of pages of wire entertainment news wrapped around a ton of classifieds and car dealer ads and such. We'd print 30,000 of the things and toss them on porches or in back yards or in dumpsters still in their bundles ... and yet we claimed a total circulation of 30,000.

Actual people still in the newspaper business or working for the Tribune may dispute me, but I'd bet money they're doing the exact same thing with the Saturday Red Eye.

[10] | 05/05/08 08:47PM

Considering the way we're going as a society, I'd think we'd all be glad people are still reading anything at all.

[11] | 05/05/08 09:03PM

I subscribe to it on Sat. & I'm lucky to get it 2 weeks out of three.

[12] | 05/05/08 10:15PM

The Tribune got in trouble a few years ago for throwing Hoy on people's lawns and claiming them as subscribers. I'm sure they're doing it again.

[13] | 05/06/08 08:03AM

Since I'm in the know here -- That's circulation counted as part of their "opt-out" program. They pick various zip codes that match the target demographic for the readers they want to sell to their advertisers. Just about every household within that area gets added to their "subscriber" list, and unless you call and tell them you don't want the Red Eye they're counting you as a subscriber. Hence all of the Red Eye garbage that we end up with in our fair city.

[14] | 05/06/08 08:26AM

The Trib got in a trouble a few years ago for simply lying about RedEye circulation, so there is reason to believe these figures are pumped-up bullshit.

[15] | 05/06/08 08:37AM

+1 to prattfall. I peed myself a little.

[16] | 05/06/08 08:41AM

Scooter: Come over. You can have mine. Go in the alley and you'll find it in the blue recycling bin. It's all yours.

[17] | 05/06/08 08:45AM

Redeye started dumping copies in front of my old place. I left them to rot (or until the landlord tossed them out).

They were wrapped in cellophane or something to boot, with bright "Complimentary Copy" lettering (or something similar).

Worthless fucking rag.

I guarantee that they count every printed issue as a circulated copy, including on weekdays when the distributors just dump the extra copies in the trash.

[18] | 05/06/08 09:06AM

Not to defend red eye, and it's likely that the Trib is artificially inflating the numbers -- but don't forget that some people do work on Saturdays.

Besides, isn't the conventional excuse, "I just pick it up for the Sudoku"?

[19] | 05/06/08 09:21AM

Over the winter, they offered a coupon for a free burrito at Chipotle with your free subscription to the Red Eye. I wanted the free burrito, so I grudgingly accepted the paper.

[20] | 05/06/08 10:04AM

your soul comes pretty cheaply, eh joecrede?

[21] | 05/06/08 11:51AM

Why can't Chipotle deliver free weekend burritos... I wouldn't mind a pile of those by my front door.