Monday, March 4, 2013

You finally lost me, San Francisco Chronicle

I bought the San Francisco Chronicle every day when it was 25 cents during the week and, I think, 75 cents or a dollar on Sunday.  Then it was 35 cents, then 50, and lately 75 cents.  I stopped buying the Sunday paper a couple of years ago when it seemed like it changed every Sunday - No magazine! OK, here's your magazine back! No Datebook!  Different Datebook! And on and on - and also it's really not worth it at $3.  But I was still faithfully plunking down (well, feeding into a newspaper box) 75 cents a day.  I like the tangible, physical paper.  I like holding it.  I like reading the Sporting Green while I eat lunch.  I don't have an iPad and reading it on a computer screen while I eat is unwieldy.  ANYWAY, no more.


Are you fucking kidding me, San Francisco Chronicle?  A fucking DOLLAR?  For a paper that is just a shell of what it used to be?  That's it, I'm out.  We are done here.  I could do 75 cents a day but, I will freely admit, there is a psychological barrier to adding on that extra quarter.  I just cannot pay a dollar a day for Debra Saunders' ill-informed ranting or Chuck Nevius' whatever that thing is that Chuck Nevius does.  It's been a nice 23 years, Chronicle, but we are done.  Good luck at your new price point.

(Incidentally, this is a photo of the newsrack in front of the courthouse at McAllister and Polk.  Usually it's empty by 8:30 a.m.  Not today.  Plenty of razor-thin Monday Chronicles for sale today.  Looks like I'm not the only one who's finished here.)
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3 comments:

  1. Civic CenterMarch 4, 2013 at 1:19 PM

    Welcome to the club. I forget the actual trigger for my decision, but about 15 years ago I made the same vow never to actually buy that supremely provincial, shitty newspaper ever again, even though I prefer reading print to digital any day of the week.

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  2. GGMarch 4, 2013 at 1:34 PM

    Wow. For many years I had it delivered every morning to my driveway, and read it on the train. I gave up delivery when I moved to SF and didn't have a long BART commute anymore. But it has still pained me to see the precipitous decline in quality. Sad to think that the (relatively) high-quality reading you got 10 years ago for 25 cents is now available in for 4x the price and about 15% of the quality.

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  3. TamagosanMarch 6, 2013 at 2:16 PM

    I'll not defend my Chronicle addiction other than to say that home delivery is a steal, esp. since you can negotiate WAY down from their printed subscription prices. Bonus: The bag it comes in is a great dog poop bag.

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