Mine is ~$150 per year

I much prefer a paper copy over sitting even longer at a computer.

We are all bunged with our newspaper, we no longer get a TV guide section, unless we want to pay extra:(

$200 a year sounds like a lot...until you realize it's only a little more than 50 cents a day. Some people spend $4 a day at Starbucks, or pay $2 for a bottle of water, or $8 for a pack of cigarettes. It's just what one values.

Also, I suspect that many of us remember when the newspaper was 5 cents or 10 cents a day...but that was when gas was 29 cents a gallon. I've found several web sites that have balanced news and I supplement that with one Internet newspaper that I value which costs about $200 a year, but it gives me unlimited access to their story archive, movie reviews, and book reviews, so I consider it a bargain, and I can access it anywhere in the world without having to carry around a physical copy.

My daily newspaper is about $240 per year. This includes the Sunday issue and a weekly TV guide.

A couple of weeks ago we missed a Sunday issue and made the mistake of buying the magazine, TV Guide, thinking it was like it once was. TV Guide did not list the PBS stations nor several of our local stations; In other words, it was useless to us and a waste of money. This upped our appreciation of our newspaper.

Have you considered what it costs to put a single copy of a newspaper together? My tiny little column alone (maybe 1/8 of a page--pays me $35. I'm a stringer, not a regular reporter, so I don't have any idea how the others get paid. Then there are the photographers, editors, office staff, sales people, not to mention the numbers employed to print and deliver the papers--as well as the cost of paper, ink, computers, real estate, insurance, vehicles, etc. Yes, there is advertising that helps pay some of those bills, but with the decline in people who actually buy newspapers, the price per copy keeps going up.

Being involved in the process, I'm amazed that newspapers can still produce their products daily, and for under $1!!! Believe me--$200 a year is a bargain for what a newspaper represents.

I agree, 200.00 is a bargain. We pay 156 for the weekend only paper. I feel it's important to support the local print media otherwise we won't have it anymore.

Our local newspaper keeps getting smaller and smaller and covering less news. It is a vicious cycle..As the paper covers less there is less reason to buy and read it. We get two newspapers delivered every day and I love reading the news but it is discouraging to see what is happening. I also read several news sources on the internet and especially like the new ones that are covering local events. It is the local events I am most interested in.
Joann

When our paper went up to $16/mo. I canceled it - not enough local news in it to keep me paying. I can get all the national news-worthy information here at the K.T. or on HLN.

The print media is facing a crises - and it's primarily the Internet that has changed our use of papers. Remember when you needed the newspaper to find out what was on sale in the local stores, to locate an apartment, to look for a job.....for the NEWS!

Papers have lost so many readers and advertisers that it's surprising they're still around. Newsweek has ceased printing a magazine and is now only online. Advertisers are focusing their marketing money on the Internet and direct mail.

My Philadelphia Inquirer subscription is nearly $300 which includes daily and Sunday and free digital access which is the entire paper - not an edited version.

I agree the price is too high, considering that newspapers and magazines both are 1/2 articles and 1/2 advertising. And those ads don't run cheap, either.

Nevertheless, I still subscribe to our Ocala paper 7 days a week and the St, Pete paper on Sundays. Love reading my morning paper.

Two local papers, subsets of the county-wide newspapers, land on my driveway every Friday for free. I wish I could figure out how to stop them as I can read everything online.

Another factor in the increase is the trend toward online versions of the print paper. It's not easy to build a computer system to replicate the newspaper -- to have the ability of seamlessly joining the computer files for the print version with the online version so that while a staff is producing the print newspaper, it can also also update the online version. (Or more likely, there are 2 staffs -- one focusing on print, one on online -- double the salaries/benefits.)

There is also a huge enterprise of I.T. folks making sure that the news companies' Web sites stay up and running. With the volume of information on the Web sites, that's not always easy to do. So add in the cost of more salaries/benefits.

But with a digital version of the newspaper, there's more advertising, right? Nope, not necessarily. Those little ads you see aren't even a blip in the revenue for most news companies. I think the only strong advertising method remains TV.

We still get the 'paper' Chicago Tribune delivered seven days a week for about $300/yr. The price includes the online version. We could get all of the same content *online only* for about $40/yr. Internet sources cost them a lot of revenue in classified and display advertising.

I think newspapers lost ground trying to compete with the 'sound bite news' on TV and internet. Ours seems to be recovering, with more in-depth reporting -- something print can do much better. I may hear of a story on TV, but I wait to see 'the whole story' in detail in my newspaper.

I would like to see newspapers return to having their own foreign correspondents, but it's probably cost-prohibitive. I'd love more investigative reporting. Sometimes it seems that all media consists only of whatever handouts they're given.

Joann, I read your post to my DH and that is just how he feels, not enough local news in the paper to be worth the price. I only read the funnies and Dear Abby type article.
Now that we do not get a tv guide it is worth even less to us.

We both love the ritual of coffee and the newspaper in the morning, now it seems we have each have our lap tops on the kitchen table, he starts reading the paper then starts looking up things on his lap top and he also has several newspapers and spots he reads on the web. Me I do not read my parts of the paper til I turn my 'Lifetime Movie' on at 1pm. I am on my lp top drinking my coffee communicating with you all, my kids and on FB.

I am sure my DH is going to stop the paper any day now;(

Problem is people don't want news. They want Duggars, Kardashians, Orca Windbag, The Spew, Ellen Degenerate, Judge Floozie and other similarly "reputable" sources for getting their "news". Cable seriously wounded both newspapers and local news stations. People want things NOW, not two hours from now. They want to turn on faux news channel and watch someone irrationally bellow about some ridiculous thing and be able to see the high-speed chase du-jour. Makes people feel good because it only happens "there" never "here". Then in sort of a poetic justice, satellite made a dent in cable, so they had to go off into other things like telephone and internet.

I used to get a newspaper from up north and one from the central part of the state but when it takes the postal orifice upwards of 2+ weeks to get the paper to you, it's of little use or interest so I quit wasting the money.

Plus, now I can use the internet for most of the reasons I wanted to get the papers.

It's not just the newspapers that are suffering from it. Local news stations have been hit hard by the internet. Gone are the days of serious in-depth investigative teams. Maybe some will dedicate a part-time reporter or two as their "I-team". No sending reporters to cover big events outstate. Why? Use an affiliate's reporter via satellite. Even the days of a reporter, photographer/cameraman and tech are long gone. Now it's a multi-media journalist who had better be able to operate the editing gear his/herself when they get back. TV stations operate on skeletal news staffs now. Even the days of highly paid anchors are dwindling in most markets.

I remember when the local television stations became weather conscious. The ones who could afford it bought their own SupercalifragilisticexpialaMegaDoppler radar systems. The main local stations here had between 12 and 17 on staff meteorologists covering weather 24 hours a day. Now there's 3 per station. And a lot more duties than before too. Apparently the weather has improved since installing Pinpoint WeatherShield SuperStormStalker Radar. And no bad weather at night or on weekends.

It's a changing world.

Hi Yoga Lady, vintage 1948,

Do you get equal say?

o j

Mine is 216.60 per year,which I don't think I very much since that's less than 1.00 a day.I've thought of cancelling many times,especially this last year or so since the San Diego paper took over the north county times.

But I like to read paper when I have my breakfast,so I've stuck with it.Don't really like it,but for us thereis no alternative,and I don't want to read on line.
Kathi

Hello Fun2BHere :

How to stop the delivery of "freebie" papers on your driveway.

Call the circculation Dept. and request they stop. Follow this by a letter with a copy to the business manager. Tell them that if they do not stop, you will consider their actions as harrassment and littering.

After that, if it does not stop, turn then in for littering and give your attourney a copy. Better yet, have your attourney help draft the letter and have him send it under his letterhead.

Here's why it is important. If it entailed only picking up the papr and tossing it into the trash can once a week, that might be tolerable. The problem is when you want to travel out of town for a week or more. Those papers lying about is a signal to burgulars that you are not home.

Your lawyer may wish to include a statement in your letter to this effect: We shall hold your firm liable for any damage and losses if burgularized while we are not on the property and your papers are laying about.

For years I read our local newspaper online for free. When it went to $8/month a year or so ago, I subscribed. That price seems reasonable to me. I hope they're able to survive. They're part of a bigger system (Gannett).