I’ve written previously about the problems of trying to get a direct answer to the question–What does it cost to subscribe to the Star-Advertiser?
See “Does the Star-Advertiser care about subscription renewals?”
This week I received another anecdotal report from a friend that you might find of interest.
Most publications offer financial incentive to customer to subscribe, which, in turn, is better for the publisher than to hope it gets purchased at Safeway or the bookstore, etc. And, the longer-term the sub, the less expensive it gets.
But not this newspaper. It’s been getting more and more expensive to subscribe. In early 2017 it was $24.70 a month; by early 2019, my bill was $40.73 a month! Not that the quality has improved.
To purchase daily at the store, it would be $33/month (including Sundays).
Does not make sense.
Worse yet, they have this weird, inconsistent pattern of cajoling the squeaky wheels who complain.
When I called to question the manner of charging, the person answering the call said to wait a moment. I could hear her talking to herself and making some calculations, then asked how about if they charged me $29.47/month?
I said that would be fine, but even better if they just offered that rate to all subscribers. She said that decision was not part of customer service (although cutting 25% from my cost was).
A friend of mine had a similar experience. Neither of us had said we planned to drop our subscription. She thinks they offered her an even lower rate!
That’s the story.
Here’s my add-on. I noticed this week that my own subscription expired in December. So I tried to go online and see what my current subscription options are.
I opened Star-Advertiser.com, selected “My Account” at the top right, then signed in to access account information. It confirmed that my subscription is running on empty. So I clicked the link for to make a payment for renewal. There the form requested that I enter credit card information before possible costs or options were disclosed. That doesn’t seem like a wise thing for a consumer to agree to.
So it appears that the only route open to me is to call and have to see what I’m offered.
I would actually prefer a digital only subscription in order to avoid all the newsprint that goes into the recycling bin, but it doesn’t seem the S-A offers such a plan for Hawaii residents.
I want to support our only daily newspaper, but they’re making it difficult.
This seems like a strange way to do business.
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Reason why younger folk see no reason to read the paper. The whole model needs to change since most of the news is “canned” anyway and the rest is written by advertisers or friends of Star-Adv.
My mother had subscribed to the Los Angeles times for 50 years. She finally decided to cancel it as she was unable to read it all and it’s not the same paper it used to be. She asked to cancel and they told her the could continue the Sunday only for .01 per year. Would that be ok.? She said yes. I think they can’t afford to
Lose subscribers as their advertising rates are based upon circulation. So they did not lose her paid subscription and the circulation numbers didn’t change.
The SA website, both desktop & mobile, has a serious problem with malware too.
On the desktop, trying to log in on Safari just now forced me into some kind of (bogus?) Adobe Flash upgrade which also tried to install other stealth programs. Had to force quit and then push through an attempted repeat of the installation.
On the iPad, about half the time now I get those bogus Amazon gift card pop-ups despite having adblockers enabled.
For as much money as the SA is charging, you’d think they could fix their damned website & eliminate the malware.
The SA website, both desktop & mobile, is having serious problems with what looks like malware.
On the desktop, when trying access the site via Safari, the website is hijacked by something trying to force an upgrade of Adobe Flash. Not sure that’s legitimate since it also comes bundled with at least two other pieces of software. After doing a force quit, I managed to stop that one.
On my iPad, about half the time now, I get the bogus Amazon gift card pop-ups despite using ad-blockers. It happens on all browsers.
No other website has these problems which leads me to believe that whatever the SA is spending our money on it’s not IT & website security.
You are living in the past.
Read it online free.
Go to Hawaii Library system website, join with your library card
(or get a card for $5).
Find the link to RBdigital account, sign up free.
Read newspapers and magazines free, including NewYorker, Smithsonian, Audubon, etc etc.
Several years ago I switched to a digital subscription, or perhaps it was fully digital plus Sunday. After several months, maybe a year, hard copies started showing up every day again, even though I kept paying the digital rate.
I think eventually the subscription option I’d chosen was priced to be the same as a full digital plus daily delivery subscription, then that option went away, leaving me with daily delivery.
A while back, before the merger with the Star-Bulletin, I worked at an office that had a subscription. We paid for one paper a day, but they delivered two. I think they did that to pump up their subscription numbers so they could look more attractive to potential advertising customers.
Ian, I sent you an email a few months ago about being offered delivery and digital for less than $5/month. That offer was available for everyone. Not sure if that offer is still good, but worth asking.
Before that I had the same experience as zzzzzz, and my rate was almost as low.
I used to prefer reading the SA on my iPad, but the “new” app is terrible in more ways than one.
I received the renewal for $213.24. This equates to $17.77 per month. The same price as last year. I did not call to negotiate and accepted the renewal price. They now seem to have their act together. I was pleased with the price and service.
That’s a fair price I would easily support.
Online I have been having too many problems with the Adobe issue, plus the front page jumping up and down over and over again, so that reading the thing becomes very irritating. So I go instead to KHON for local news and the nationals for anything else. With free Reuters and BBC it makes more sense. But I am still paying for the SA – for now.
This is a great, informative thread. Mahalo.
SA just increased my monthly 7 day home delivery rate from $22.53 to $28.60. Percentage-wise, that is hefty.
I wrote to cancel. After a series of emails this morning, SA offered, in order:
$28.60 + $20 Foodland gift card
$25.13 + $20 Foodland gift card
$22.53 (old rate)
$19.95 new subscriber rate.
SA also just offered Wed/Fri/Sat/Sun delivery for $12.95 or Sun only for $6.25, both with online access. As I prefer to read on my iPad (even with the new App), I’m going to drop to the Sunday only for $6.25.
I’ve done Sunday only before, and like another reader, found that they delivered daily regardless. I didn’t know whether this was driven by SA or the delivery guy on the very loud moped…
Again, thank you all for sharing. I hope my info helps others too.
I subscribed through a deal at the supermarket. $20 for 6 months. Around month 4, they called to tell me I needed to pay more because the rates increased. I was like NO. I paid for 6 months and you can’t change the rates in the middle.
Nearly every newspaper in the country has variable subscription rates. Those expecting a certain rate for all are living in the 1970’s when the kid knocked on your door and said “COLLECT”……then you paid what your neighbor paid. Today there are so many incentives for “new subscribers only” and they are renewed at various price points as they mature as well as incentives to maintain your subscription if you feel the need to cancel or change from print to digital. Ian is incorrect in saying he can’t subscribe digital only. I do and it was easy to do. No problems at all.
The worst thing about the Star Advertiser is its reliance on the New York Times for opinion and news copy. A recently retiring NYT editor called them out for their partisan bias. It may fit the mental silo of many Hawaii customers but definitely not all.
They have to acknowledge their malware problems and solve them pronto!
I had the same experience with malware. I called Apple support and they walked me through fixing it. I then downloaded the newest version of Adobe flash- but through their own website.
I also received a S/A bill for double what I was paying for digital- When I called to cancel, I was offered another year at the old rate. However, I was told that a digital subscription includes Wed,Fri,Sat and Sun hard copy. It’s bundled.