The Florida Times-Union Has Lost Its Mind

The Florida Times-Union’s management has lost its collective mind. They want to charge readers up to $72.28 per year for the new TV Weekly. This is scheduled to replace the weekly TV schedule that has been included in the Friday paper at no additional charge beginning June 5, 2011. If you are a subscriber, you can get it for as low as $34.84 per year with a 24-month subscription. This works out to 67¢ per week. Their promotional ads have the nerve to call this the “BEST DEAL” in bright red letters as though they were doing us subscribers a favor.

Well, this subscriber is not so gullible. After reviewing the free sample included in today’s Sunday paper, I went online to see what a subscription to TV Guide would cost. What I found at www.tvguide.com/magazine was a subscription rate of $16.50 for 56 issues if you paid immediately by credit card or $16.50 for 48 issues if you wanted them to bill you. For credit card payers, that works out to only 29¢ per issue or a savings of 38¢ every week over the best offer for the Times-Union’s TV Weekly. TV Guide’s format is very similar to TV Weekly’s and TV Guide has made major improvements in its coverage of daytime and local stations. Plus TV Guide has more extensive editorial content. In other words, I can get a better product for substantially less. That’s a no-brainer for any savvy consumer who wants a paper TV program schedule. (Yes, I know I can check the current schedule on the TV itself or online. However, I like to know ahead of time what is going to be on so I can plan my schedule accordingly.)

So, I immediately subscribed to the TV Guide to save $18.34 per year for a paper television schedule. That is not the only savings I will be enjoying. The only reason I subscribed to the Friday-Saturday-Sunday (weekend) package of the Times-Union was to get the TV schedule that came in the Friday paper. Now, I can go back to a Sunday-only subscription for the coupons. This will reduce my subscription cost from $12.79 to $8.54 per month, a savings of $51 per year. Even after deducting the cost of the TV Guide, I will save $34.50 a year.

It really pleases me that I can reduce the money I give the Times-Union after their support and active promotion of Alvin Brown for Mayor. If it were not for the shopping coupons I use from the Sunday paper, I would cancel my subscription all together. (And, yes, I know I could get coupons online but then I have to pay for the ink and paper to print them out. Plus, it costs a lot more time to find them than clipping coupons from the paper while I watch TV.)