Good News, Bad News

As a resident of Rockland, and more specifically of Clarkstown, I don't have to remind our senior citizens that many of us are on a fixed income, are about to get, in January, the smallest Social Security increase (1.5%) in decades, and are one of the most highly taxed communities in the nation.

Against this backdrop came the news that my yearly subscription to the Journal News was about to rise another 25%, after last year's obscene increase of 45%.  Compounded, the two-year increase for home delivery, from $232 to this year's disgraceful $420 represents an increase of 81%!!  I'm sure we are all hard-pressed to think of anything whose price has increased by such an extraordinary amount in such a short period.

By contrast, I also subscribe to home delivery of the New York Daily News.  It is delivered by the same carrier who brings the Journal News, is put in the same box, and has the identical cover price ($1) to that of the Journal News.  And do you know what the yearly subscription rate is for the Daily News?  $119!!

That's right: I can receive home delivery of the Daily News for three and a half years for the same exorbitant price that the Journal News is proposing to charge readers for this one coming year.  They claim an increased price in newsprint.  I guess the Daily News uses different newsprint to print its newspaper!

What is worse, I called the alleged Customer Service line of the JN yesterday.  In my 33 years as a Rockland resident, I have never been treated with more disdain than on this particular call.  I asked to speak to a supervisor, who told me in no uncertain terms that, well, they didn't give a damn!  There was no consideration or discount for senior citizens, no reduction for yearly subscribers (the Daily News discount is spectacular); in short, the disdain for the readership, and for seniors, especially, is palpable.

Of course, the only way to deal with such callous disdain for the consumer is to cancel one's subscription and send a message.  I hereby send mine.  I hope other Patch readers will join me.  The raping of the JN readership by senior management has to stop.

Donald Schlesinger