Post-Gazette raises price for newspapers sold at newsstands to $2
Post-Gazette readers will pay 50 cents more for the weekday editions they buy at supermarkets and newspaper racks.
The increase this week to $2 makes a daily edition of the Post-Gazette more expensive than 90 percent of daily newspapers in the United States, according to a recent survey by the Newspaper Association of America.
The move comes as print publishers look to offset declines in advertising revenue.
It's unclear whether the price increase, which went into effect Monday, will affect home delivery or Sunday editions. No change in the Sunday price was mentioned in a notice sent to retailers last week, and the subscription rates quoted on the Post-Gazette website have not changed.
Attempts to reach Post-Gazette general manager Lisa Hurm and marketing director Tracey DeAngelo by phone and email Tuesday were unsuccessful.
In the past decade, the Post-Gazette's weekday print circulation has dropped 54 percent to 104,274, according to the Alliance for Audited Media. The newspaper has made recent moves to shore up its finances, including workforce cuts and moving into new offices in the North Side, while it considers options for its old home on the Boulevard of the Allies.
Newspapers have raised prices for home delivery and single-copy print editions as they rely on readers increasingly to fund their operations, said John Murray, vice president of audience development at the Newspaper Association of America. Price hikes almost always cause newspapers to lose some readers, he said, but the revenue gains from charging more have been enough to justify the increases for many publications.
“It's been a dramatic shift,” Murray said. “But newspapers have been able to offset a lot of those losses by higher reader revenues.”
Declines in circulation and advertising revenue are an industry-wide phenomenon. Weekday circulation at American newspapers fell 7 percent last year, and Sunday circulation fell 4 percent — the biggest declines since 2010, according to Pew Research Center. Advertising revenue experienced its largest drop since 2009, falling nearly 8 percent.
A decade ago, 80 percent of newspaper revenue came from advertising and 20 percent was from readers, Murray said. Today, the balance is closer to 50-50.
Still, newspapers risk alienating too many readers if they don't justify the cost increase by providing better content, said Rick Edmonds, a media business analyst at the Poynter Institute in Florida.
National publications such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times can charge premium prices because of the scope and depth of their coverage, he said. Raising prices becomes more difficult in smaller markets like Pittsburgh, especially when there is competition. The Tribune-Review's weekday edition costs 75 cents.
“I think there is a recognition that if you're going to charge $2, it better be worth $2,” Edmonds said.
Chris Fleisher is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-320-7854 or cfleisher@tribweb.com.
