There’s a new discount offer for the Star-Advertiser making the rounds–$12 for a year of full digital access plus the print edition delivered on weekends (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday).
That’s 76% off the “regular” $50 digital subscription for Hawaii readers. What a deal!
Meanwhile, I’ve been getting an error message fairly regularly in the past few days when trying to check the Star-Advertiser in the early morning on the web.
Often I can open the main page. I’m asked to log in to read any stories. Then I get this error message, which tends to persist for several minutes. Perhaps this is just one of their busy times of day. I only note it because it has become a more familiar message than previously.
On the other hand, the delivery of the full digital edition to my iPhone or iPad via the Star-Advertiser’s own app works very well, although it lacks the “breaking news” provided by the web edition. It’s easy to navigate through and seems to work smoothly.
And the sale of the San Francisco Examiner to a group headed by Star-Advertiser owner David Black is due to close by tomorrow, according to published reports. The Examiner was converted to a free newspaper after its sale by the Hearst Corporation in 2000, and now claims to have the highest circulation of any newspaper in San Francisco and San Mateo county.
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I have the sinking feeling that one of these days, David Black is going to shut down the Star-Advertiser. It’s still losing money, which he needs to spend elsewhere … say, on his new toy in San Francisco.
One of these days, most paper-published newspapers will shut down. It may take another decade, but it’s coming, like it or not. And papers won’t come back magically after they close.
The SA likely won’t close soon. For the immediate moment, I’m much more concerned about the future of a once-solid paper, the SF Chronicle, now that Black has its tabloid competitor.
Sounds somewhat familiar……..
Any one out there with this coupon? I am willing to pay $1 a month for Star Advertiser’s subscription.
Anything more than this is very hard to swallow.
I’ve been having problems accessing ThePaper’s Web site as well – click on the link in my “favorites,” and get a blank page. Maybe it’s not a favorite anymore . . . ?
Same access problem here. Repeated error messages over several minutes = lots of frustration.
Then there’s their absolutely stupid policy of only allowing one log-in at a time, unlike the NYT digital subscriptions (for less money!!!!) which permit multiple, simultaneous log-ins.
ahhh yes Nancy, wired into the SA’s monthly financials are ya? I doubt very much they are losing money but unlike you I am only guessing. I had the same connection problem and called their customer service line and was told they had some sort of issue and they are working on it whatever that means…..
I’m not guessing. I’m going on what David Black publicly said in an interview. I’ll try to find it. He said that keeping one money-losing newspaper was part of his business strategy, and for the time being, the Star-Bulletin was that entity.
I don’t recall that quote. Black has said repeatedly that keeping paper profits low is a central part of his approach.
Correct, Ian. Basically Black embraces the “minimize taxes” approach, which requires low profits.
I found the quote (http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/05/21/black’s-magic/2/):
“While the stock value of public companies depends on profits, Black keeps his company just slightly above break-even to minimize his tax bill. He pays himself a salary but has always avoided skimming off the cream. ‘For every two papers we’ve got that are making money, we want to have one in the incubator that’s losing money so, effectively, that reduces the taxes we pay. And you build value.’”
I need to amend my earlier comment. Black didn’t specifically say the Star-Bulletin was losing money. But it was, at the time of this publication, and probably still is. It’s a loss leader. MidWeek keeps the SB afloat. That was never a secret.
Tim,
That’s an interesting observation now that I think about it….what’s more is that the Chronicle President is Mark Adkins according to their website. He was the long time advertising chief for the Advertiser back in the early days of the newspaper fight here. And, the current ad director was an ad manager of some type under Adkins during the same time frame. How ironic would that be???
Potentially ironic.
Potentially horrible.
We shall see.
So… where is this deal, please? I can’t find it online.
Oh… I see that is says ‘respond by mail only’… which begs the question – where do I get the flyer? It’ll be worth the $ just for the online version so I can make comments again. ^__^
Wow! What an amazing deal! That’s almost a cheap as the Star-Advertiser sells a digital subscription to mainlanders.
Seriously? If you live in Atlanta, New York or Los Angeles (or anywhere NOT Hawaii) the Star-Advertiser will sell you a digital subscription 5 times cheaper than if you live here. They took the “everything is more expensive in Hawaii” bit a little to far.
I have never seen a paper try harder to make itself irrelevant, but I think they have finally succeeded.
Their amazing “only $2 more than we charge mainlanders” price in only advertised in the print edition and you have to mail off to get it? Do they think it’s 1975?
Well, since Ian didn’t reply – I’ll ask you, Kalaheo.
Do you know where to get this flyer? It looks like the scanned one Ian posted is a tri-fold, and there is a piece of paper covering something (address?) – so is it a mailer or is it also in the print addition – or both?
I hope you know the answer! I know several people who would love this deal because next year is election year, and they – like me – refuse to pay SAd extortion rates just to post in their online ‘rag.’
I wish I knew its origin. It was emailed to me by a reader, who presumably received the original. Perhaps he’ll let me know what the original form was and when it was received.
Further clarification. The original was mailed to a former subscriber whose subscription had lapsed sometime ago. But it was addressed to “Resident,” so appeared unrelated to subscription status.
Thanks for the info, Ian.
aikea808 –
I’m sorry. I wrote a lengthy reply this morning, but when when I clicked “submit,” I got a java/cookie error (Java and Cookies… MMmmmmm!) and my post disappeared into the depths of the internet.
I don’t know how you can get that amazing deal that lowers prices for locals to almost as low as they sell to mainlanders but I thought it was pretty funny it existed only on paper and had to mailed in.
Apparently, the SA thinks it’s still 1985.
Hi Ian.
I checked for my area. It is $10 for digital access while for 96816 at the time I checked it was $50 for digital access for the same product.
BTW I am curious. I saw someone who looks like you sitting in First Class on Hawaiian Air. Was that you? Well if not… there was someone who looks just like you.
I’ve never managed to get into First Class on Hawaiian. I’ll have to watch out for my body double.
I believe a cunning-Lingle curse is in play with regard to the Starbull.
Yep, that mug shot of that scary looking witch on the top left!
Well, I guess it is worth a shot to print it and mail it in.
That’s a good idea! 🙂
I think this offer makes it clear most of us ARE willing to pay for access to the online edition of the S-A. It appears the “paper” is still trying to find the right price point.
Receiving the Sunday paper would be a plus (for me), but I’d jump at the $12 price for online access alone. I would willingly pay twice that, but how high I would go, I dunno. But neither does the paper know. I DO know the current price is way too high for my budget.
I don’t expect the paper to give away its online content for free. But surely they could have more customers by dropping the price. I suspect a large portion of their subscribers are people who got in the habit of reading the paper each morning to start their day and do not have interest in getting it online. Do they know what price people are willing to pay for only online access?
OTOH, I assume the S-A needs to deliver enough hard copies of the paper in order to generate enough advertising revenue to keep the paper going. So the paper may make more money off this weekend delivery offer than by offering an exclusively online subscription.
I offer these comments in the hope someone more knowledgable might chime in. Thanks.
Kolea,
It is a simple promotion to likely push their print number to whatever internal goal they might have. Every newspaper in the country has these as a matter of routine. Your observation is correct sir. It’s all about print baby. If you have any doubt, check out last Sunday’s paper or the Thanksgiving paper. I weighed it. Almost 4lbs…..
Bulletin tells me this offer is for new subscribers only, although I don’t see it in the ad reproduced above.
Bummer, I just tried to calling the subscription line to sign up for the weekend rate of $12/year and was told it’s only available to those who receive the (mailed) offer. Selena offered me a rate of $12/MONTH for weekend deliver and I had to decline.
I’m gonna print out the graphic, mail it in, and see what happens. 🙂
Yes, please do! I’d do it, but my printer blew up on Tues. and I’m still researching to get the best one that will work for my ipad 2 & mac (has to be a photo printer).
It worked! I got my first delivery this morning!