We didn’t get our local newspaper, The Springfield News-Leader, today. Considering the Monday and Tuesday editions are so slim now, it wasn’t much of a miss. But it did interrupt our normal routine of drinking coffee while we read the paper at the kitchen table. Instead Burl opted for GolfWeek and I chose Newsweek.
I called Circulation and discovered that instead of speaking with an actual person in Springfield, I had to dial an 800 number and answer an automated machine. My options for resolving the missed issue were to either take a credit on our account or have today’s paper delivered tomorrow.
They forgot the other option. Read the paper on-line.
We just renewed for another three months but are now seriously considering if we need this daily dose of mediocrity. We can read the local news on the website – or watch the local news on TV. The Internet provides plenty of national/international news plus the comics I like to read. And we’ll cut down on the amount of stuff I haul to the recycling center each week.
At a cost of about $16 a month, I’ve decided to monitor the “value” I receive from the paper for the next 90 days. If I can get enough coupons to cover the cost, we may continue – or go to Sunday only which is when all the good ads and coupons come out anyway.
Poor customer service. Lack of stimulating content. Missed delivery.
And newspapers wonder why their circulation is down.
I used to work in customer service at another Gannett owned paper (my brother and sister-in-law still work at that same paper) Assuming that Springfield has started using the same automated system that we did, just ignore it and hit 0 a couple of times and you should get right through to a rep. At the Detroit News and Free Press you would need to call to have your paper delivered if it was missed by: 8:00 on weekdays, 10:00 on Saturdays and noon on Sundays. The reason that your delivery person isn’t able to bring it out after that time is that by 8:00, your average carrier has actually already put in a full 8 hours of work. (Most people don’t know that.) They may have missed a paper, but they probably shouldn’t be driving after working all night. Contrary to popular belief, it is not an easy job, and at least in Detroit it was often filled by someone that had been laid off and was supporting a family on a paper route salary (aka, not much). Don’t know if you found this helpful or not. Just thought that I would give you the insiders perspective. And hey, if you aren’t sure of it’s value, consider that you would read it on-line. You must see some value in it!
Hey Anne -
I cancelled my paper during the News-Leader’s endless negative rants about the wonderful Greg Burris. I haven’t missed it. I used to buy one of Sundays but I discovered that if you fill up your car at Kum & Go on Sunday you get a free paper. I feel for those that work in that industry but I think our local paper is so negative that I don’t need that in my life.
Have a great day Pal!
I, too, will speak up in defense of newspapers, having worked at various local papers on and off for the past 20 years. They’re not infallible, but it’s really hard to meet everyone’s standards. Newspapers sometimes have to cut back, make choices, but if you ask 10 different people where the real value in a local paper lies, you’ll likely get 11 different answers. So how can editors make cuts and changes that meet everyone’s needs?
I found an error in our local (also Gannett) paper today – an its/it’s error. It was glaring, and it should have been caught. But errors happen; newspapers are generated by people. They will always strive to be better (I know the daily memos we got detailing what had been done well; I know what kind of accountability the staff had for errors, our goals to be correction-free). And I would challenge those that criticize to churn out error-free copy at that same rate, same volume, day after day, and see how easy it is – me included. It’s tough.
Bottom line: Local papers still provide a service. You can go online for all the national news (CNN, MSNBC, Fox, major metropolitan papers). But for local news, where else can you go? I think we need local investigative reporting (which is not really done by local television stations, at least not with the same depth) to keep officials on their toes. They need to know that someone out there is paying attention. Watch the News Leader and see how many things they report on that you might not have been aware of without it.
A friend of mine, fellow J School grad, had a conversation with someone recently who told her newspaper reporters were obsolete. “I read my news online now,” he told her. Who does he think produces that news he is reading? He needs to realize that the online paper is still the paper – it is still generated by the same reporters, same editors, same photographers; it’s simply a different medium, different format. But you can’t sit at the table and do the crossword, share the comics, or mark up the online edition. I would truly miss my daily paper – even if the Monday paper is, sigh, only two sections.