After many years as a free paper the Syracuse New Times will soon be changing to a paid subscription model.
Effective April 24, the popular weekly newspaper will only be delivered by the Post Office to people who buy a subscription.
Publisher Bill Brod says, “Curious that in the even 50th year of our operation the business world is changing around us.”
He says the New Times must change too in order to continue operations.
Brod says because of declining advertising revenue the paper is no longer able to support itself as a free paper.
“There’s been massive disruption not just to the publishing business, but to many businesses. We used to write, copy edit, layout, design, photographer, print and deliver a newspaper and the advertising revenue we sold for 50 years was sufficient,” Brod tells NewsChannel 9.
The revenue from subscriptions will essentially pay for the delivery and the printing of the refreshed Syracuse New Times and ad revenue will fund the rest of the operation.
“It’s going to be printed on a different paper, it’s called bright white paper, so the pictures will snap more, it’ll be a little more visually appealing. It’s going to be redesigned so it’ll be a little more magazine-like than newspaper-like,” Brod says.
Interestingly, he adds, for the first few years the paper did cost a quarter before becoming free as it has been for nearly 50 years now.
“Everything we do is written by local people, it’s about local people, it’s hyper-local content that you can’t get anywhere else and if the community says we want to continue to receive this we’re excited about the opportunity to be able to provide it,” Brod tells NewsChannel 9.
Click here for more information about subscription plans for the Syracuse New Times.
