Aug 12th, 2008
Is a Newspaper Subscription Still Worthwhile?
I’m not a fan of regular fees, including subscriptions. Everything I can do to eliminate fees I’ll do if it’s not substantially worse than keeping them. That includes banking, cable television, cellular phones, landlines, and magazines. In some cases–for me–it’s been necessary to keep monthly fees going (Internet access and cellular phones, for two) and in others I’ve cut them out completely (magazines–the public library and the Web make great alternatives). But how about newspapers?
My mother subscribes to the paper–like she has for longer than I’ve been alive. I’m not sure she’d know what to do without it. But is it a worthwhile investment?
It’s hard to say. In general, most (but not all) of what you get in the daily newspaper is available on the Web, sometimes faster than paper delivery. On the other hand, there are things in the paper–the Sunday advertisements and coupons in particular–that are not available, at least not as easily, without it.
Just today I found a Subway coupon good for $5, which was more than the cost of the paper by far; I’ve often found other coupons that were worthwhile. Still, this is the minority of the content, and at least the large national chains that send fliers inserted into the paper every week also have those same fliers on the Web. And while Craigslist, Monster, and CareerBuilder are stealing business from traditional classifieds in the paper every day, many people and businesses continue to use the daily paper as their way of getting ads like this out.
So is a newspaper subscription still worthwhile? It depends on your situation. My guess is if you’re used to it, it’ll be hard to do without it, and if you’re not computer literate (in which case you’re not reading this) it’ll be even more difficult. However, for someone like me, it’s probably wiser to skip the subscription and buy it maybe only on Sundays, when the coupons and ads come out–if even then.
We quit taking a paper many years ago because we just didn’t read it anymore. The news was old by the time we got the paper in the morning since we get it practically instantaneously online, and the ads, too, were just a rehash of stuff we’d already seen online.
As a general rule we’re not big coupon clippers — the cost/benefit ratio in terms of the amount of money saved as compared to the trouble it takes to find, clip out, and keep track of the coupons isn’t worth it for us, so that’s not even a reason for the Sunday paper.
The only thing I really read the newspaper for, in the end, was the comics, and those I can read online anyway.
In my case, my subscription allows me to have newspaper during Sundays only, unlike your regular 7xday type of subscription. It saves some money plus there are coupons you could take advantage of as you’ve mentioned.
Sam
Fix My Personal Finance
http://fixmypersonalfinance.com/
In our city, the subscription for Saturday and Sunday is 75 cents a week cheaper than just buying the Sunday paper. That’s the only reason I have my subscription. I utilize the coupons and sales flyers so I’d be buying the Sunday paper anyway. The numbers are 99 cents a week for Saturday and Sunday delivery versus $1.75 for just the Sunday paper. Almost a no brainer here.