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  • #76
    Re: The Honolulu Star Advertiser

    Honolulu Civil Beat who in a little more than a year of existence has taken down some of their PAYWALL features gives public full access to the tiered pricing of the Starvatiser at this link:

    http://www.civilbeat.com/posts/2011/...n-mainlanders/

    It's all about the money.

    The price on Oahu for a digital only subscription is $9.95 per month. The price on the neighbor islands is $4.95 per month. The price on the mainland, $1.95 — one-fifth what somebody in Honolulu will have to pay.

    It might sound strange, but the Oahu online customer is the least valuable to the Star-Advertiser. The advertisers who want them pay the least.

    Mainland customers get the best price because they're the most valuable to advertisers. An airline selling a plane ticket from Newark to Honolulu has a lot more ability to pay for a higher priced ad than does City Mill or Little Village Noodle House.
    So the local people as an advertising target are not as valuable to the Starvatiser than mainland people. Huh. Another reason why not to throw any money at this operation.

    Yep. I'm keeping my wallet locked on this one.
    I'm still here. Are you?

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    • #77
      Re: The Honolulu Star Advertiser

      The ZIP code that matters is the one on your credit card billing address.

      Something that's being overlooked — because most people haven't seen it yet — is that the site will also produce a "digital paper" version of the newspaper for reading on iPad and tablets.
      Burl Burlingame
      "Art is never finished, only abandoned." -- Leonardo Da Vinci
      honoluluagonizer.com

      Comment


      • #78
        Re: The Honolulu Star Advertiser

        Originally posted by buzz1941 View Post
        Something that's being overlooked — because most people haven't seen it yet — is that the site will also produce a "digital paper" version of the newspaper for reading on iPad and tablets.
        I don't have a tablet of any kind yet, but I know that I will someday - and I suspect that is exactly how I will want to access the paper ... any paper ... and that digital versions such as that will replace the hard-copy paper edition of all newspapers before long.

        I remember discussing electrophoretic and similar "e-ink" displays with a crew from the MIT Media Lab back in the 1980s, and I'm glad to see them becoming more and more commonplace.

        Comment


        • #79
          Re: The Honolulu Star Advertiser

          Originally posted by mel View Post

          So the local people as an advertising target are not as valuable to the Starvatiser than mainland people. Huh. Another reason why not to throw any money at this operation.

          Yep. I'm keeping my wallet locked on this one.
          You ever think that maybe it's the information on the site that is more valuable to local readers?

          Mainlanders have far less incentive to pay $10 a month for access to the site, with little information or advertisements that could be useful to them. Why not give them a good incentive?

          Sorry to hear you are disappointed. We humbly hope to earn your patronage again someday.
          ---
          Gene

          "A man can surely do what he wills to do, but cannot determine what he wills." - Schopenhauer

          Comment


          • #80
            Re: The Honolulu Star Advertiser

            Comment


            • #81
              Re: The Honolulu Star Advertiser

              Originally posted by genepark View Post
              You ever think that maybe it's the information on the site that is more valuable to local readers?

              Mainlanders have far less incentive to pay $10 a month for access to the site, with little information or advertisements that could be useful to them. Why not give them a good incentive?

              Sorry to hear you are disappointed. We humbly hope to earn your patronage again someday.
              but you don't care about earning mine? We are the ones who should be paying the lesser amount for a subscription.
              "Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be."
              – Sydney J. Harris

              Comment


              • #82
                Re: The Honolulu Star Advertiser

                Originally posted by anapuni808 View Post
                but you don't care about earning mine? We are the ones who should be paying the lesser amount for a subscription.
                I apologize, I never meant to exclude you and I'm sorry you took it that way.

                Again, the reasoning behind it is that mainlanders find the site to be far less valuable than residents, so it's valued accordingly.

                I won't argue on the merits of how much they should be charged. I am not part of the decision making, nor am I qualified to be part of them. But I see the logic in charging less to out of state folks, particularly since the Star-Advertiser doesn't have the more universal appeal that the New York Times has.

                I've heard the argument that the NY Times sees all readers as equal, so why doesn't the Star-Advertiser, but that's because the Times' audience is not only national, but global, just as I read The Guardian pretty regularly.
                ---
                Gene

                "A man can surely do what he wills to do, but cannot determine what he wills." - Schopenhauer

                Comment


                • #83
                  Re: The Honolulu Star Advertiser

                  Since Star Advertiser turned off comments about the subscriptions on their site, people have been venting at other sites. From KITV 4:

                  Readers beware: The Star Advertiser is trying to trick its readers. Look on their website. Notice that there are no prices for the new digital subscription! That's because they are charging local readers more than neighbor island and mainland readers for the same access. Prices are $9.95 monthly or $50 a year to Oahu people, $4.95 monthly or $25 a year to neighbor islanders, and only $1.95 monthly or $10 a year to mainlanders. Call and complain! We're not STUPID!
                  Read more: http://www.kitv.com/money/28659156/detail.html
                  I'm still here. Are you?

                  Comment


                  • #84
                    Re: The Honolulu Star Advertiser

                    Originally posted by buzz1941 View Post
                    BTW, just entering a Mainland ZIP code isn't an end run. What matters is the ZIP on your credit card info.
                    I don't even think the SA would even know what your zip code on your credit card was. Credit card billing is typically done with a third party anyway. All SA wants is the revenue from that credit card.

                    My thinking is to try using a mainland zipcode and using your credit card with a Hawaii zip code billing information and see how it fares. I mean I have friends on the mainland who have local (Hawaii) credit cards. Same thing.
                    Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

                    Comment


                    • #85
                      Re: The Honolulu Star Advertiser

                      Originally posted by craigwatanabe View Post
                      My thinking is to try using a mainland zipcode and using your credit card with a Hawaii zip code billing information and see how it fares. I mean I have friends on the mainland who have local (Hawaii) credit cards. Same thing.
                      Good luck!

                      You could also set up a dummy shell corporation in an offshore account and supply it with laundered money moved through a third party as well. Make sure that you also have doctored ID, disposable cell phones, disguises and accounts preserved on flash paper.
                      Last edited by buzz1941; July 27, 2011, 06:36 PM.
                      Burl Burlingame
                      "Art is never finished, only abandoned." -- Leonardo Da Vinci
                      honoluluagonizer.com

                      Comment


                      • #86
                        Re: The Honolulu Star Advertiser

                        Originally posted by buzz1941 View Post
                        Good luck!

                        You could also set up a dummy shell corporation in an offshore account and supply it with laundered money moved through a third party as well. Make sure that you also have doctored ID, disposable cell phones, disguises and accounts preserved on flash paper.
                        We're talking newspaper subscription
                        Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

                        Comment


                        • #87
                          Re: The Honolulu Star Advertiser

                          Originally posted by craigwatanabe View Post
                          We're talking newspaper subscription
                          (Methinks that is his point - the "sarcasm" font didn't come through.)

                          Comment


                          • #88
                            Re: The Honolulu Star Advertiser

                            I get the paper delivered 7 days per week, and have for a couple of decades. It's an old habit that I must have the daily newspaper to read while I'm having my first coffee of the morning.
                            So I went ahead and activated my account for the free website access, as I check the Breaking News items several times a day from my office. I also usually take part in the daily poll there.
                            Just my two cents.
                            .
                            .

                            That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

                            Comment


                            • #89
                              Re: The Honolulu Star Advertiser

                              Try this tomorrow, take the SB, two of them. (ride thebus, you'll get the paper for free), cut out all the "local" articles (make a stack), cut out all the national articles (make a stack), make a stack of the remaining, which would be adds. Then you'll see what your paying for.

                              With the exception of each local news orgs "exclusive" reporters your getting a majority of your local news from the same local AP sources. Its when companies start to quadrupel (sp?) dip, 5x's dip, to suck every last cent they can out of the local person, you just hit the point of that's enough.

                              SB, you have subscription sales, newsprint add sales, classified add sales, online add sales, etc. If that's not enough, I'm sorry, for me that's critcal mass, I'm not paying anymore. So does that mean, in the event of a natural diaster, if we didn't pay or $9.95, on Oahu, we wouldn't know if a tsunami is coming our way, until the next day's paper? Which would probably be a little late and not so much "Breaking News" anymore.

                              Oh no, I hope the Governor's staff is not reading this thread. I can see it now, the State will introduce a "Pay for Protection" policy. $9.95 a month to activate your State Civil Defense account to have 24 hour access to natural diaster information.

                              DXer

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                              • #90
                                Re: The Honolulu Star Advertiser

                                Originally posted by Leo Lakio View Post
                                (Methinks that is his point - the "sarcasm" font didn't come through.)
                                Sarcastic replies from a Star-Advertiser employee? Yeah, that's a sure-fire way to attract customers and foster goodwill.

                                And while Gene and Scriv present a totally logical argument for the tiered pricing from an economic standpoint, it still comes off as being a slap-in-the-face at Oahu residents on a PR level.

                                If the current ad revenue for the internet S-A was insufficient, what do you think will happen to that revenue when the number of online readers go down as a result of the pay-to-view policy going into effect? I see a damaging cycle ahead for this venerable newspaper.

                                Heck, I already said that newspapers in general are a dying business. If the local TV news depts. keep their text articles and video content free, then no way will S-A text articles be able to compete.

                                I honestly hope that this so-called "new business model" isn't something that the S-A needs in order to survive. If it is, then this newspaper is doomed.
                                This post may contain an opinion that may conflict with your opinion. Do not take it personal. Polite discussion of difference of opinion is welcome.

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