The higher-ups at "South Jersey's newspaper" haven't responded to my emails seeking more information on their new pricing scheme, but they are already asking you to start paying for their coverage (or lack thereof).
Despite the dozens of reporters, editors and other South Jersey neighbors the Courier-Post has laid off in the past several years, along with months worth of unpaid leaves of absence forced on employees—action that left many workers with no option but to tap the already dry state unemployment fund—the company has decided their online product is now so vital that you can only read it if you pay for it.
And furthermore, they have decided subscribers must pay for online service even if they don't want it.
Looking for Internet-only access? For all the website, mobile device and e-newsletter action you used to get for free, you're now going to have to spend $10 per month or $120 per year (or go to your local Patch site, Philly.com/SouthJersey, the Burlington County Times, the Gloucester County Times/South Jersey Times, NJ.com's county-by-county coverage, The Retrospect (requires subscription), the Barrington Bulletin or any of a number of other publications filled with local news).
Of course, you can get online access bundled with home delivery. For the same $10 per month, you can get online and the Sunday newspaper. Or, for $14 per month you can get Thursday-Sunday in print along with online access. And the final option is $21 per month for full week home delivery coupled with online access.
Print only? Sorry—no such option exists.
The C-P bosses have managed to make apples-to-apples comparisons difficult. According to this page (warning, clicking on that link will count as reading an article on the Courier's site, and you only get so many free reads before you are locked out), the newspaper didn't offer Sunday-only subscriptions as of last year. And the weekend subscription was Friday through Sunday (instead of Thursday through Sunday, as now offered).
But here's the basic comparison:
Preferred reading method ---- Before paywall -- after payway
Online only ---- Free -- $120 per year
Sunday only ---- $78/year (newsstand) -- $120/year (home delivered)
Weekend only ---- $117.36/yr (Fri-Sun) -- $168/yr (Thur-Sun)
All week ---- $200.88/yr -- $252/yr
One might think a profession that historically has pushed for greater transparency to ensure average citizens were as informed as possible might, itself, want to be transparent regarding its reasons for raising prices.
Sadly, that doesn't seem to be the case.
If you'd like to talk to those in charge at the site, email Managing Editor Leon Tucker at ltucker@gannett.com or interim publisher Ellen Leifeld at eleifeld@gannett.com.
My condolences to all the workers at the Courier-Post. It's only a matter of time. While I never did like the Courier-Post, R.I.P. anyway.
But I do want to address one point you made: "the company has decided their online product is now so vital that you can only read it if you pay for it." A media property like CP cannot exist for much longer unless it charges for content. And it needs digital to earn in order to compensate for decreasing profits (likely to cover the loss) from the print product. Ad revenue for a site like CP is low, especially when you see Google ads. And I doubt their traffic is that high to begin with. The print version of the newspaper is going away (maybe something like a weekend edition will be printed to grab some automotive ad $'s, but that's it). The model no longer works, print ad revenue has cratered and the classified advertising that used to be the lifeblood of the medium is gone. This is the first step in transitioning people over to digital as paying customers - it's the only way that the CP can survive as a media property. Will subscribers buy in? Probably not. Local newspaper audiences skew older, so getting their customers over to 100% digital is going to be a challenge. And it was handled badly.
That said, they do need to find a working business model ... And the way this was handled has been quite sad (especially when you consider that my former supervisor, Leon Tucker, still has not responded to my requests for information about the pay wall).
"we said to Harry, wait a second, JCA was going to be the engineer of record. I don’t care about your f—— review process"..." I sat him down and said ' [Assemblyman Conaway] Herb, don’t f-- with me on this one. You know, don’t make nice with Joe Doria cause I’ll tell you if you ever do that and I catch you one more time doing it, you’re gonna get your f--king balls cut off.' He got the message."- George Norcross, FBI Informant recording. As anyone who has watched Boardwalk Empire knows New Jersey has a venal political culture. Things have changed since Nucky Johnson's days, somewhat.But even in darker days it was never the practice of the press to endorse corrupt political bosses - until now courtesy of the Newark Star Ledger: George Norcross, the political boss of South Jersey, has taken his share of knocks over the bare-knuckled game of politics he plays. If there were still smoke-filled rooms in Trenton, he would be at one head of the table opposite Gov. Chris Christie almost every time. But there’s more to the Norcross story. He is making a genuine difference in the lives of impoverished people in Camden, the most desperate corner of this state. And his efforts seem to be growing every year....