News Journal New subscription model starts in February

[longnecker]

New subscription model starts in February

Expanded coverage, more digital, video options planned

As part of a historic shift toward digital-first publishing, The News Journal Media Group -- which includes The News Journal, delawareonline.com, Signature Brandywine and Spark -- will launch a new subscription model in February.


As part of this effort, The News Journal will be making substantial improvements, including adding journalists, launching new and improved digital platforms and expanding video offerings on delawareonline.com and delawareonline.tv.
"Now that more than half of our readers access our content digitally, we've reached a tipping point in our industry," said Howard Griffin, president and publisher of The News Journal. "We will continue to produce an excellent daily print edition for the thousands of readers who want to continue getting a printed newspaper, and at the same time invest in the latest technology and adjust our business model to reflect these new realities."
Readers will be able to choose from a variety of subscription plans to have the printed edition delivered to their home or office (daily, weekends or Sunday only). Each plan includes unlimited access to all online content on all of the company's platforms, including a tablet-friendly news reader and an improved mobile site. Readers can also choose a digital-only subscription, which includes the e-Newspaper, a replica of the print edition.
Nonsubscribers will still have some access to delawareonline. com's home page, obituaries, classifieds and videos. But only subscribers will be able to view all the stories, databases, photo galleries, archives and special features of The News Journal. Subscription options will range from $13.75 to $25.50 per month.
The new subscription options and prices more appropriately reflect the value of the content.
"The News Journal Media Group provides news and information that have tremendous value for our readers," Griffin said. "People rely on this information more than any other news source. We provide the greatest range of topics and content, with the depth to help people understand the issues. And we provide a vital forum for community conversation." read more
http://www.delawareonline.com/articl...ll|text|Home|s

[LozerBoozer]

This will go over like a lead balloon. The News Journal is a complete joke. They are on the edge of going belly up, their writers and editors are incompetent, and they dont even have the balls to print complete descriptions of crime suspects.
Within a year or two, the News Journal will be a stinkin memory. Good riddance.

This all began back when any old Joe could register and comment on their articles. Their usual far-left slant and outright LIES were countered with- GASP- differing opinions and supported FACTS from the other side of the political spectrum! The N-J did not like that at all, hence the Facebook requirement, and now the pay-for-it policy. No one in their right mind will PAY for the Snooze Journal in any form. I stopped my home delivery about 6 years ago. They are going to hell in a handbasket.

[Roogle]

You mean you have to PAY for information?! The internet doesn't pay for anything. That business model won't work. I don't read delawareonline much anymore. Most of my news comes from twitter.

[longnecker]

This will go over like a lead balloon. The News Journal is a complete joke. They are on the edge of going belly up, their writers and editors are incompetent, and they dont even have the balls to print complete descriptions of crime suspects.
Within a year or two, the News Journal will be a stinkin memory. Good riddance.

This all began back when any old Joe could register and comment on their articles. Their usual far-left slant and outright LIES were countered with- GASP- differing opinions and supported FACTS from the other side of the political spectrum! The N-J did not like that at all, hence the Facebook requirement, and now the pay-for-it policy. No one in their right mind will PAY for the Snooze Journal in any form. I stopped my home delivery about 6 years ago. They are going to hell in a handbasket.

They do have one subscription which is worth it. For $50 you can get the Sunday paper delivered for a year. The coupons make it well worth it. No I don't read the paper but my wife likes the comics.

[Josef]

Do they seriously expect people to pay for that shit online? How about offer it for free and have your advertisers pay? Retarded.

[Chase]

their advertisers do pay, a lot. now they will have online readers pay too, it's what online news media outlets call a pay wall.

lancaster news papers did it recently too

people will pay, they will make money, and the world will continue to turn.

i agree with you guys that it is BS, but cash moves everything around us, dolla dolla bill ya'll.

[Tralee]

This all began back when any old Joe could register and comment on their articles. Their usual far-left slant and outright LIES were countered with- GASP- differing opinions and supported FACTS from the other side of the political spectrum! The N-J did not like that at all, hence the Facebook requirement, and now the pay-for-it policy. No one in their right mind will PAY for the Snooze Journal in any form. I stopped my home delivery about 6 years ago. They are going to hell in a handbasket.

Exactly, I was there and the truth and proof of the truth was met with a less than polite "I beg to disagree". Going to FB stopped it cold and the ones who ruined it for so many simply chose another form to do the same thing. A BIG thanks to the management of this site for making this one a completely different kind of place.

[Tralee]

They do have one subscription which is worth it. For $50 you can get the Sunday paper delivered for a year. The coupons make it well worth it. No I don't read the paper but my wife likes the comics.

Hey! Nothing wrong with the comics. If they would deliver to the front door of my house I would do the Sunday paper, but they won't and if I have to get in the car and drive down the driveway to get the paper, I might as well just keep going and get it when and if I want. I used to log on to see what was happening in DE when I was away, last time for three weeks, I didn't check it out once. I will have to say that compared to the Island Packet, the NJ is slightly better.

[Joe Walther]

This will go over like a lead balloon. The News Journal is a complete joke. They are on the edge of going belly up, their writers and editors are incompetent, and they dont even have the balls to print complete descriptions of crime suspects.
Within a year or two, the News Journal will be a stinkin memory. Good riddance.

I have to assume that you're basing all of this on anecdotal evidence--aka the way YOU view (and, understandably, you're NOT alone) TNJ. But, the financial facts don't agree. There isn't a shred of empirical evidence to support any of it. Quite the opposite, in fact.

The News Journal is nowhere near going belly-up. In fact, TNJ is among the highest rates of return for the parent company, Gannett. So much so that Gannett management just pledged a fair amount of additional investment capital. And, Gannett is a media and marketing group that is not known for losing money over the long haul.

The newspaper has a newly appointed publisher with a proven record for both substantive reporting and subscriber expansion. As for the increase in subscription rates, far more people will pay than won't because, by comparison, it's the only state-wide newspaper with enough substantive topical depth to appeal to a state-wide base of readers.

After a period of layoffs and firings--the same as most other print publications across the nation have endured--TNJ not only survived, but is now back into a hiring mode.

As for the writers and editors being incompetent, you have to explain that in more detail. News reporters write from a different perspective than do news commentators. The former have to stick to the "who, what, when, where, and how" of a story; the latter are under no such restrictions.

As for the editors, different ones serve different functions. Some editors are responsible for copy context from a syntactical standpoint. Others are responsible for copy content and placing content lead-headlines. The former are responsible for making sure the writing makes grammatical sense, the latter are responsible for grabbing potential readers' attention to the point of actually BUYING a print copy.

My annual subscription bill tops $400 a year. I subscribe, electronically, to multiple newspapers, magazines, and various newsletters. They automatically download each day or week, over the years to my PC but now to my iPad and Smartphone. I do, however, subscribe to a home-delivered (7-day) copy of TNJ because my wife reads it and she'd as soon have her fingernails ripped out, sans anesthesia, rather than log onto a computer.

Regardless, comparing the writing and editing quality across the board, I have found no substantial difference among the publications. In fact, looking at some of the much larger news publications, TNJ is better. As for TNJ's reluctance to include the race of suspects in their reports, it's a very old habit going back to the late '40, '50s, '60s, and '70s.

I've read this newspaper for years; I began reading it daily, long before it became The News Journal. The DuPont family owned two newspapers in Delaware--at one point directly and later indirectly under the guise of a surrogate called Christiana Securities.

One was called The Wilmington Morning News; the other one was called the Journal Every Evening. Both of them came out of the same building located at 8th and West in downtown Wilmington. The same editors managed both of them.

And, pre-publication copies of both were sent via courier to the offices of the DuPont Company's Executive Council located at 10th and Market Streets.

Sometimes a storyline didn't please one or more members of this council. And, without this group's imprimatur, the papers did NOT hit the street. If there was not sufficient time for rewrites of the objectionable pieces, they were "killed" and the paper was reprinted for distribution.

The policy of not including racial details continued even after Gannett purchased the paper. They don't explain why. As long as a police agency releases a report including racial detail, I don't know why TNJ does not include it in their reporting.

While this infuriates some people, it's not a big enough deal for a majority of the subscribers. As well, this practice may well change under the newly appointed publisher' I hope so; but, time will tell.

And, finally, the comment sections were a major point of contention between those with 3-digit IQs and the illiterates--both functioning and non-functioning. But, if one read the comments posted in various sections of the newspaper, one would discover that all the morons congregated in the front-page news section.

That's where the most bang for the buck was found. It's changing, though. Some of those folks would try their hand at posting here on TD. They found that they either had to change their tunes or they were history because Chase and his moderators have ZERO tolerance for that kind of crap--thank God, or some other deity of choice, for THAT.

[cowboygilbert]

@LpzerBoozer,Tralee,

Originally Posted by LozerBoozer
This all began back when any old Joe could register and comment on their articles. Their usual far-left slant and outright LIES were countered with- GASP- differing opinions and supported FACTS from the other side of the political spectrum!

That's a total fabrication and right-wing slant . The escalation of insult and obscene back-and forth charges and name-calling from conservative and liberal posters is what convinced the NewsJournal to go to a Facebook-delawareonline comments section. The rest of the paper is easily accessible online as it had always been.

[cowboygilbert]

Joe Walther
Hanging ten on the wave of insanity!
http://thetruefacts.blogharbor.com

The clear voice of reasonable , well-thought out commentary is like a breath of fresh air in a too-stuffy closed room.

[Grin]

I buy the NJ on my way to work everyday. I like the puzzles, comics and local news.
I tried the online version when the price went to a dollar some time ago, but there's something I like about print. Plus no cryptogram. The comment section for the articles were not very friendly, there were some racists and alot of partisan political bullcrap.

[Kid Lester]

I will be very, very surprised if The News Journal can survive this business model change.

Let's check back in a year.

[cowboygilbert]

@Grin,

I buy the NJ on my way to work everyday. I like the puzzles, comics and local news.

I can't agree more. There is something special about the well-written , down-home quality of the News Journal . Many of the News Journal reporters and columnists seem like well-informed neighbors and family friends. I especially like Gary Soulsman 's contributions in the local arts,sciences, and entertainments in and around Delaware.

[Joe Walther]

I will be very, very surprised if The News Journal can survive this business model change.

Let's check back in a year.

Kid, I've been hearing about the impending demise of TNJ for decades, even long before Gannett bought the Paper. The only thing that will kill it is viable competition. None exists at the present and the capital investment necessary to start a competitor and finance it until it "catches on" is too great and way too risky.

TNJ circulation is substantial and Delaware is predominately Blue, a perfect match for TNJ's editorial board that also tilts Left. True, that Blue tilt is fading a bit in Sussex and Kent Counties. But, even if the state goes predominately Red, it won't kill off TNJ. The Paper will simply change its tilt to RED and keep right on publishing while its readers keep on complaining as they always have done.

While the Paper is not technically a state-wide monopoly, micro-economically speaking, it faces an inelastic demand curve because there are only (I think) two other state-wide newspapers. But, the resources of both of them combined can't compete with TNJ.

So, from a pricing standpoint--and this is an approximate--for every 2% increase in price, they'll lose only 1% in sales revenue. As such, the price increase will well offset any revenue fall-off. In other words, they'll earn more money over the long-run by increasing prices than they would by leaving them alone. In fact, they'd lose money. The bean-counters at Gannett are experts at this stuff.

On the other hand, just one viable competitor, in a state our size, would keep them solidly on an elastic demand curve where such an increase would bankrupt them. But viable competition is not on the way in Delaware.

[Chase]

So we should start a news paper is what you're saying Joe?



Posted via Mobile Device

[Joe Walther]

So we should start a news paper is what you're saying Joe?

You don't even want to know the size of the capital investment just to get started and publish the first edition. And, this does not begin to approach the total it will take to get your circulation to a profitable level. I'd be most willing to invest. That would reduce the remaining needed capital by about 0.000000000129%. Let me know!

[cowboygilbert]

@Joe Walther,

TNJ circulation is substantial and Delaware is predominately Blue, a perfect match for TNJ's editorial board that also tilts Left.

I find it amazing in this day and age of virulent partisan politics that the News Journal 's traditional slant toward balance and bi-partisanship can be construed as a 'tilt Left'? When a newspaper prints the views of Ted Kaufman and Eugene Robinson next to the views of Charles Krauthammer and George Will and let the readers decide ,I can't imagine that a 'tilt Left'.

[LozerBoozer]

I agree it did get nasty on there at times, from people on both sides of the political spectrum. It was the same 10-15 dingbats all the time. I would go on there and make silly comments sometimes.

[LozerBoozer]

NO, it is the TRUTH. I would post on there and nothing about my post was offensive, racist, sexist or whatever- and the NJ editors would remove it. I merely offered a differing opinion. typical snooze journal.