News- or e-paper?
May 25, 2014
Medieval relicts
My wife has a tablet. Nothing to rant about, on the contrary: one of its nice features is that the high-resolution screen allows reading a newspaper with a quality that is on par with the printed version. Therefore, for over more than a year, she’s been reading her favorite newspaper on her tablet. My wife, being a teacher, gets her newspaper subscription at a reduced fee. She’s fond of the digital version, as it even enables using the paper on the school’s smart board. Actually, I hate the paper version of newspapers. Its format is inconveniently big, and it generates piles of paper building up in our house. It is a medieval relict.
Since the digital version, no-one reads the paper version, it is a waste of resources, energy (production and delivery), and I have to take them to the “eco-cycle-zero-waste” park in our community. Again, this is a waste of resources (my time and the diesel of my car, transporting the pile of paper).
Customer satisfaction
When arranging my wife’s subscription more than a year ago, I was happy to find out that the newspaper company offers an option to suppress the delivery of the paper version. It felt like a joint green contribution to society that the newspaper company and I made. I felt good about it. Speaking about customer satisfaction… it rocks!
Renewal time
Recently, renewal time was up, so I visited the newpaper’s site to confirm the continuation of the subscription. I was surprised to find that the price increased with a mere 50%. The discount for teachers was no longer offered. I checked the site, and was surprised again to find out that the teacher’s discount was still offered, but only for the combination of paper and digital version.
I checked my mail archive and soon I found the mail address of the sales guy I was in contact with last year. Therefore, I mailed the very same sales rep that confirmed my digital-only subscription last year.
Back to the middle ages
Below, you can find a transcript of the mail trail that emerged. I only slightly edited it for the ease of your reading and to avoid disclosing the name of the paper and the sales rep.
“Dear sir,
As of last year I subscribe to the digital only version of your
newspaper with a teacher’s discount. On your website I can’t find
how to continue this subscription. I only can find the paper
version (that also includes the digital version). However, I’m not
interested in the paper version I only want the version for
iOS/Android. Can you help me?
Kind regards,
Walter”
Alas, we cannot give you a discount for the digital-only version. The discount is only available for the paper version. If you desire so, I will continue your digital subscription at the commercial rate.
Kind regards,
Hank Thompson, Reader’s service”
I replied instantly: “Dear Hank,
I’m very sorry to bother you again, but this is a strange
situation.
If I take a paper version subscription, I pay about $200 (source:
your site). In that subscription, the digital version is included.
If I take a digital only version (which is identical to the offer
above, but without the paper version, so it is ‘less’), then I pay
$300?!
Can you please tell me where I miss the rationale?
Kind regards,
Walter”
Unfortunately, we don’t have any formula combining the digital-only version with the teacher’s discount. We will be considering this combination in the future, but for the time being I can only advize you to take a paper version subscription (it contains the digital version) and you can use the paper version as educational material in class.
Thanks for your understanding,
Kind regards, Hank Thomson, Reader’s service”
So far for customer satisfaction. At this point I lost my temper... “Dear Hank,
I don’t know if you realize that we have entered the twenty-first
century, a century in which climate change may have disastrous
effects if we don’t care about energy, resources, waste and
pollution. Clearly, your company is not concerned about its
corporate social responsibility.
As to your remark about using the paper version as educational
material, please note that newspaper companies are not the only ones
that have entered the digital age. Nowadays, schools have smart
boards that allow displaying the newspaper online.
As to your remark about considering the combination in the future,
please reread the mail conversation we exchanged last year in which
you granted me a digital-only subscription with a teacher’s
discount. I attached it to this mail for your convenience.
Thanks for having read these e-mails.
Kind regards,
Walter”