So They're Really Serious About This Paid Content Model

May 21, 2009 at 8:18 AM
7 comments

I can get it for free online, but if I "steal it" from their box without paying the seventy-five cents, apparently I'm going to jail.

I bought it because I have 15 minutes to kill before the Post Office opens, but...

Oh newspapers circulation managers, you're extinction is unavoidable.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T (Ever notice how this little message is a essentially a free ad for both Blackberry and AT&T and how hard it is to remove it from auto-sending? If only the newspapers were so ingenious in their understanding of the things people do and social marketing opportunities.)

Think About It Mr. Circ Manager?

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Can you say Kindle Mr. Hearst?

meanwhile Apple's "sent from my iPhone" is a little ad for me, the cool Apple user. Hadn't thought about that before, but it fits with what they're selling: the coolness of their users.

Back in college my source of income was the management of half a dozen newspaper boxes and selling the papers door-to-door in a couple local hospitals. I bought the papers (Rocky Mountain News) for fifteen cents and sold them for a quarter. Any theft came out of my pocket. I didn't complain because I was making five or ten bucks a day for a couple hours work, but my net would have been half again as much more if it weren't for the people who couldn't bear the thought of parting with twenty-five whole cents to get their newspaper, even though they still really wanted a newspaper. Only about three-quarters of the papers that left the box were paid for, and I had to sell one and a half to make up for each one that was stolen.

That was a long time ago, but if things are the same way it's not Hearst putting up the sign, it's the guy in charge of that box.

[this is good]

Apparently the copper socked the newspaper purloiner on the schnoz before throwing him in the slammer.

When I was with Knight Ridder a few years back at a local market paper, I know the boxes were managed by the company, not individuals any longer. But you might be right, this little sticker could be from those old days when the person you were stealing from was the carrier. I "always" paid for the paper by the way...but then again, as a self-confessed new junkie and someone working in media, I could write all of it off on my taxes.

I changed the tag line on my ipod emails to read, "Sent from my brand-agnostic PDA" for exactly this reason.

That's a good idea. Now if only I could find where to do that!

So They're Really Serious About This Paid Content Model

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