Do Subscribers Notice When Their Newspaper Cuts Back On Editorial Content? You Bet They Do!

Philip M. Stone May 28, 2009

Two recent surveys indicate that newspaper readers, and newspaper editors, are not very happy with cutbacks endured over the past few years and while management can claim it is only doing what it has to do, the wool is not being pulled over anyone’s eyes. Readers know exactly what is happening and they don’t like it.

The most alarming survey is from The American Customer Satisfaction Indexthat for Q1 put newspaper customer satisfaction at 63 out of a possible 100. Is that bad?” Well, the newspaper satisfaction drop in the quarter was the worst for any industry and it puts newspaper satisfaction below airlines – and who doesn’t have a beef with airlines –at 64 and mobile phone providers scored 69. Not really a good show to score below those two groups. When the survey began in 1994 the newspaper customer satisfaction level was 72, so it has dropped 12.5% during that time.

And that kind of response jives pretty well with a poll taken by the Associated Press Managing Editors organization showing a distinct concern by more than 70% of the responding editors and publishers that what they have been doing to their newsrooms has “somewhat affected” or “greatly affected” their editorial product. Only 20% of respondents said their cuts had little or no affect, so at least we know the percentage still living in a dream world.

The AP’s own story on the survey showed just how badly the majority of respondents feel about what they are doing these days. “The comments accompanying the responses were filled with resignation, frustration, anger, despair, confusion and even some gallows humor that reflected the depressed state of the U.S. economy as more people lose their homes because they can't afford their mortgages,” the AP wrote.  ‘“Our newspaper's biggest revenue source today is foreclosure notices,’” wrote Clifford Buchan, editor of the Forest Lake Times, a free weekly newspaper in Minnesota. ‘“We have uncertainty once that run ends, as it most surely will.’"

Of course management can make the financial case for such cutbacks. Statistics based on data issued by the Newspaper Association of America data, which itself is now going through severe cutbacks meaning the end of the print run for its well-regarded monthly Presstime Magazine --  says that US newspapers  have lost close to $19 billion from 2006 – 2008 on their print operations.

But then again readers will tell you that’s not their problem, and all they know is that newspapers are cutting back on their favorite read as never before, so why do newspapers take umbrage if circulation numbers fall?.

An example of an irritating cutback comes from McClatchy newspapers in three markets that are actually charging an additional 25 cents to those subscribers who want the stand alone TV magazine that has always in the past been delivered as part of the Sunday package.  

You think people are paying the extra 25 cents? In Sacramento only 10% of Sunday subscriber are paying the extra fee (want to guess how many of those not paying are mad at the newspaper for implementing the charge?)  and in Tacoma, Washington only 3% of Sunday readers took up the deal. Policies like that will certainly do no good for customer satisfaction when the pollster comes calling.

And what really turns off subscribers even more is when editors put a positive spin on cutting back. The Sacramento Bee’s editor wrote that the newspaper has quit “distributing the TV book to those who don’t want it” (how does she know they don’t want it; all she knows is that they are not willing to pay extra for it). “I think this is a great solution for a part of the paper that is extremely valuable to a significant minority of our readership,” she concluded.  For a Sunday reader who finds the magazine useful but is not willing to pay extra to get it that’s like waving a red flag to a bull!

Now if The Bee had just plain raised its Sunday rate by a dollar a month would that not have done the trick and readers would still think they are getting the full package? (As any marketing professional will tell you, people don’t like to be “nickled and dimed” for this and that and much prefer a complete package price). Sacramento is McClatchy’s home town and that group saw its circulation revenue rise by 0.68% to $68.5 million in Q1, so obviously the company is not averse to raising subscription and newsstand prices.

And how long is it going to take for The Bee or Tacoma to tell their readers that readership of their TV magazine is now so low they are going to discontinue it? People are not fooled by such marketing and they tend only to get mad—yet another reason to score newspapers low on the satisfaction pole.