Should you subscribe to your own publication?

I don't subscribe ... mostly because I do like to save the money and also because I do travel a fair bit. When I have days where I'm just working office shifts, I try to get in early and read the paper. I also look at the sports section online every morning. I admit, I feel a lot better when I do read the paper and know what the hell is going on in my town. But there are times when I travel for four days at a time and lose touch with what's going on. It happens.

I don't brag about not reading the paper, but I'm not as caught up as I should be.

 

I don't think reading it online cuts it.

You don't get a gauge of story placement, art, graphics, etc,. etc., etc. You ought to be familiar with where stories ran, etc., etc., etc., because that stuff comes into play, too - and, plus, you can be damned sure the readers notice.

The newspaper isn't just words.

 

No, no. You're right. "Why should we do their jobs in addition to ours?" isn't a bullshit attitude. :

Futhermore, you don't know ANYONE -- absolutely anyone -- else in your circulation? Hard time believing that.

 

I think there's an ethics issue here as well. Reporters need to have a certain degree of autonomy from the commercial product to operate properly. Should we really be trying to sell subscriptions to, say, sources?

 

Wow. Weird debate.

I can't buy into the 'if we don't subscribe why should anyone else, support the cause, etc' logic...you already 'support the cause' by doing your job, sometimes for less money than you're worth, and with fewer benefits than you deserve. Your subscription (or lack thereof) has no bearing on whether Joe Reader decides to get the paper at home.

But how can you not look at the actual newspaper every day, whether you subscribe or buy off the newsstand or steal it off the security guard's desk? Knowledge is power....what are your colleagues doing? What's the editorial direction? Political views? Design trends? How foolish do you look when your neighbor says,'Wow, crazy story on your front page today!' and you have no idea what they mean?

And if you don't read your own newspaper, do you read ANY newspaper?

 

You mean anyone in the circulation area who is a non-subscriber, not a source, and that I know well enough to have their e-mail address and/or pitch a subscription to face-to-face? No.

 

Sorry, BBAM, but I share EStreetJoe's comment that I shouldn't have to do circulation's job in addition to my own. And there is an ethical line I feel is crossed if you're shilling to friends and family.

Personally, I'd rather chew off my own arm than spend time trying to sell friends or family a subscription to a newspaper. But the same would hold true if I worked in any other position. I'm not about to try to convince my family they need to buy from me or my store.

Talk about cheap.

 

I definitely agree.

Work is work and leisure is leisure when you're among friends. Think of that commercial where the couple gets invited for what they think is a nice dinner at another couple's house, and the guy says, "Well, before we start dinner," and all of a sudden he goes into some sales pitch.

It's supposed to be funny, but that's what this would turn us into.

 

Thanks AA for sharing my sentiments. Why should I hit up people I barely know, friends, family, neighbors or sources for subscriptions when the circulation department probably already has done so and gotten turned down? Or why should I ask when they can ask themselves?
True story I heard from a friend a paper he used to work at... sports department wanted to put out a preview tab. Many in the sports department are friends with some local business owners. They asked them if they would be interested in advertising in a sports preview section. All of them said yes. They proceeded to give advertising the list of business and contacts. Advertising came back a week later and said none of them wanted to place an ad. So there are some papers where even if you try to go beyond the job duties to do what's best for the paper you efforts go for naught.

 

I'll put it this way: If I wanted to be a salesman, I'd do it somewhere that would pay me much better than the paper.

 

Thank you. Unless I get a commission for every subscription I sell, I'm not doing circulation's job.

 

At our place the pressroom oftentimes calls to tell us about a misspelled word in a headline or subhead, a refer to the wrong page or some other mistake a writer made or a copy editor made.

I'm sure glad they don't mind doing our job in addition to theirs.

And I'm sure glad AlleyAllen isn't a pressroom employee at our place.