Should you subscribe to your own publication?

Yeah.

 

You don't necessarily need to subscribe, but you absolutely MUST read it.

Whether that means subscribing or picking one up after it rolls off the press is up to you.

Not reading your own paper is job malpractice. Period.

It shows you don't care what's in it. It shows you will have no idea if something you write (or took off the wire) has already been in the paper. It shows you will have no way to respond to a reader who asks a question about something that appeared. It shows you will have no ideas about ways to improve the product. And it shows a lot more . . . none of which is anything to be proud of.

And don't even attempt to make an issue out of the money spent for the subscription.

It takes no more than 10 minutes of looking in any Sunday paper to find more than enough coupons to offset anything you paid for the paper for that week. Geez.

 

Plastic bag, too?

 

If I may continue the threadjack for just a short time longer, can I ask you for the mentality behind this? I ask because you seem like a conscientous, well-informed, passionate poster ... Why does it seem to be a badge of honor for some people NOT to read their paper? Just kind of an "I'm-above-it-fuck-the-man" kind of thing

 

On Sundays.

 

The end is near!

 

I read it everday online.

Our online edition has the same stuff for free, so why spend the money? We get a paper on Sundays for coupons and ads.

 

The end is nearer!

 

I think one point of alarm is this - if people who care enough to make this their livelihood aren't subscribing any more ... why would we expect readers to?

 

Exactly.

 

Why spend the money indeed.

For that same quarter you can get an ounce of warm horse piss at Yankee Stadium.

 

First job: Free home delivery.
Second job: Half-price home delivery (paper automatically deducted it from your paycheck). Yes, it was a Gannett paper.
Third job: No discount.

Went to Omaha for the College World Series one year and came back to 13 papers stacked up on my doorstep. Circulation asked if I was sure I called to stop delivery for those days. Yes, idiot. I am sure.

The only time I have been robbed was when circulation (years ago) did not hold my paper while on vacation. Three papers on the welcome mat were enough to tell someone I was not home. At the third job, when I got back from Omaha to find a clear signal to would-be burglars that I was away, I canceled my subscription. I will not ever sign up again.

We give away our content online for free, and I can get the print edition at work if I care to.