A Better suggestion, or READ ME DAMMIT!

About This Message Board
1

While logging on to my favorite website; the SDMB message board this morning, I was thinking what a cool bunch of guys Ed Zotti, and the staff of the Chicago Reader were for putting up with all the BS necessary to allow this great website to continue.

I then thought that The Chicago Reader must be a pretty cool newspaper to have such cool guys working for it. “Hey,” I thought! “Even though I don’t live in Chicago, I oughtta see if I can subscribe to that paper. I could read Cecil, and probably a bunch of other cool stuff as well.”

So I clicked around, looked at Buy Stuff and such and couldn’t find diddly.

I followed the Chicagoreader on film banner ad, but that didn’t help. So then I just tried Chicagoreader.com.

WAAAAAY down at the bottom there is a tiny link that says Subscriber information. So I clicked that.

“Send $95 to yaadda, yadda, yadda for a one year subscribtion. But if you live in Chicago, you can pick it up free.”

So after ten minutes of fruitless searching and beating my head against the wall to figure out how to subscribe to this thing, I get this wonderful little ad that says it’s free but I should send $95 if I’d prefer to get it late.

In the immortal words of… well somebody:

“Whafuck?”

I mean it seems pretty obvious to me that you have a tailor made source for additional revenue here. WHy are yhou making it difficult for me to give you money?
So, the suggestions are:

  1. Seeing as you have 6,000 plus members here, and who knows how many lurkers, wouldn’t it behoove you to have a prominent ad front and center every time these people log on inviting them to subscribe to the Chicago Reader right there on your very own secure server? You have a pretty well targeted audience, don’t you think?

  2. Don’t tell us stupid out-of-towners that it’s free. Nobody wants to shell out $95 bucks for something free.
    The Chicago Reader, the home of Cecil Adams, the smartest man in the world, is clearly a valuable commodity that any grateful schmuck would be glad to shell out $95 for. So don’t tell me that it’s F***ing free!

  3. Don’t make it $95. That’s too much. Make it $49.95. That’s right, $49.95 will buy you SIX WHOLE MONTHS of The Chicago Reader, for a limited time offer available only to the exceedingly intelligent participants of the Straight Dope Web Site and Message Board, and only FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY! Plus, if you act now, you will get a free teeming millions coffee mug!

Then of course, you renew for a year at $95. Send it bulk mail and save postage. If the subscribers are not in Chicago, they won’t care if they are a week behind.

Seriously. Why is it so difficult to subscribe? It oughtta be easy, even if I’m International. I should be able to do it online. I should be reminded every time I visit the site. I should have an incentive like a free e-mail address @straightdope.com or access to better features like chat or something if I’m a subscriber.

2

Scylla, I live in Chicago and I make a point of picking up the Reader when I spot it. It’s distributed at record stores, restaurants, libraries, etc.
However, it is a very local paper. It generally consists of four sections, one of which is entirely classified ads, two sections aere reviews of Chicago area clubs, theater, museums, music, etc. The first section has The Straight Dope on page three, and other columns and locally related articles.
Unless you live in or near Chicago, or used to, or visit frequently, I can’t see why anyone would want to pay $95 for a year (or, for that matter, $49.95 for six months) for the Reader.
Seeing as The Straight Dope is available in numerous papers around the country (see http://www.straightdope.com/otheroutlets/newspapers.html), I personally would get one of those if I was in or near one of those cities.

Though I do agree that it would seem logical for a newspaper’s website to make it as easy as possible for someone on the web to subscibe to the paper.

3

I pretty much agree with 2nd Law.

The first section contains things like: articles about various Chicago topics such as politics, activism, environment, the media; a handful of local arts reviews; and the Daily Specials (available on the Reader home page). Cecil’s column is on page two or three. This section is roughly half ads (like the other sections), which is why the Reader’s free. The articles are interesting, but probably not for non-Chicagoans.

The other sections have Chicago and suburbs entertainment info and classified ads. Most of this is already available on the Reader Online.

If you’re still interested, maybe you could e-mail the Reader to see if it would be possible to get a sample issue (for a price, of course).

4

Why isn’t it all just posted online? The Weekly World News is. Does the Reader make that much money from out-of-towners who want a hard copy to read in the bathroom?

5

Let me punt this over to one of the Reader advertising and managerial folks for a response, 'cause I have to tell you, the answer is “I dunno.”

Don’t forget that all this cyberspace stuff is new to our friends on E. Illinois and they tend to concentrate on their main chance – publishing the newspaper every week – and everything else comes after.

I can also speculate a little, having worked for an alternative newspaper in the past. It’s an experience I recommend to everybody that wants to have fun while making absolutely no money.

For the most part, subscriptions are a big pain in the butt. Regardless of what you charge for them, you never really make a meaningful profit (if you make a profit at all), especially when balanced against all the hassle it is to get them from your office to their mailbox.

That being said, the Reader is an excellent newspaper in the grand old tradition of “comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable” and reading it does make my week. And if I ever need sex toys or piercings, I know just where to go. Heck, considering that, maybe $95 a year is not asking enough. :slight_smile:

your humble TubaDiva
Administrator

6

Scylla,

Since the Chicago Reader isn’t easy to access, maybe you’d like to try The Baltimore City Paper. Same thing, better city.:wink:

7

Give me your address, and I’ll mail you Cecil every week when I’m done with it.

(Oh, and the newspaper version isn’t the one here. Whay is that? Censorship?)

8

The papers that choose to run The Straight Dope in syndication edit as they wish for prevailing standards. Some also choose “PG” versions of some of Slug’s racier illustrations; for some, even those versions are too hot for their pages and they run the column unadorned.

In a similar vein, some of the columns in the Archives are slightly edited; they go back to when we were on AOL and Cecil was having to operate under AOL’s Terms of Service. Now that we’re on our own, we’re unfettered. Well, mostly.

your humble TubaDiva
Administrator

9

You guys may be missing my point. Since the Chicago Reader is sponsoring this site, my (and perhaps your) affinity should be with them. It’s not about simply getting the Chicago Reader in my grubby little hands (though thanks for the offer to mail it to me,) it’s about the revenue that could be generated for the the paper through this board.

It’s seems foolish not to offer the product in this way, and take advantage of a ready made market.

Perhaps subscribers, could receive “executive privileges” on the board, or a better title than “Member.” Maybe something like “sustaining member,” or “exceptionaly large member,” have voting privileges or other inducements.

Don’t you guys understand? It’s about putting more money in Cecil’s pockets!

If we make him more money, he’s bound to post more, and we won’t have to put up with inferior substitutes like DavidB!