Gainesville Register trying to kill print subscribers?

 That's the only thing I can think of for their latest stupidity, which came from at least the regional level of CNHI, if not headquarters.

The semiweekly paper — which doesn't even have the largest Texas Press Association circulation numbers of a TPA member newspaper in its own county — raised its newsstand price to $1.50 for midweek and $2.00 for weekend, from previous of $1.25/$1.75.

Those are prices for a 10-page newspaper with no sports other than signing days and one other story, since the end of football season; 10-page newspaper WITH one of those full-page CNHI HQ infographic pages every issue; AND with what all CNHI papers — and some other idjits like the Denton Record Chronicle also continue to do — and with a full three pages of black/white comics, and other comics section material each issue. (On this last item, I assume it's part of CNHI still trying to "puff" or "fluff" its papers in hopes some sucker believes them that they're worth their 1990 values. With Bill Patterson in Denton, since the KERA takeover is already in progress, I have no idea what's in his mind doing six days of that for a print weekly.)

Then, there's pure stupidity on the editorial side.

OK, April 30 issue? Gainesville is known beyond the local area for the Medal of Honor parade and events. Paper runs a couple photos up front, then a HALF page photo page on the back page. Was there a paid color ad on the bottom half? Nooooo .... there wasn't a PAID at at all. Rather, CNHI's "Golf in Bammy" half page ad runs — in BLACK AND WHITE.

And, all this with the presumed luxury of a pagination hub.

Anyway, comp papers in this region to the Register?

Bowie News and Wise County Messenger both have 1.5-2x as many pages each issue, as semiweeklies, than Gainesville. Both have full local sports coverage. Both have 3x the amount of local news coverage, if not more. Both still priced at $1 both issues.

That's why I laughed when TPA asked regional publisher Lisa Chappell to be one of the featured speakers at last year's convention. What insights did she have to offer?

Whether 1.7% or 3.8%, online newspaper disinterest is HORRIBLE

Psy Post talks about research in which people were given a free subscription to the online version of their closest regional daily newspaper, in both Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

Note that I said regional. Not the nearest local five-day daily (or smaller). But, the regional paper. In Pennsylvania, either the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette or the Philadelphia Inquirer. The Raleigh News & Observer in North Carolina.

More than 2,000 free subscriptions, over several weeks, in Pennsylvania. Only 44 signed up to renew paid on their own. That's 2.2 percent if out of an even 2,000. Actually, there were enough beyond 2,000 in the offer that the story says the 44 were 1.7 percent.

Actually, that's not true, in part because of a slight misreading by me originally, that makes the hook better yet. Or worse.

That wasn't churn. Over 13 weeks, those more than 2,000 were offered a free subscription for 13 weeks. Only 44 said yes.

But wait, it gets worse!

The unexpectedly low response led to the second phase of the experiment, where the researchers shifted strategies to direct content promotion. In this phase, the researchers created sponsored posts on Facebook that promoted specific articles from the two state newspapers. These articles covered prominent state-level issues like COVID-19 policies, the governor’s political activities, and fiscal challenges. 

Each Monday over several weeks, the team identified and promoted a new article, aiming to boost engagement with regional issues. This intervention resulted in thousands of targeted Facebook impressions, allowing researchers to see whether directly delivering news content through social media feeds would effectively increase engagement. 

Despite generating tens of thousands of impressions, this strategy did not significantly improve participants’ political knowledge or engagement. The researchers found those exposed to promoted local news stories on Facebook did not demonstrate any significant increases in local political knowledge compared to the control group. 

Similarly, the interventions did not significantly affect measures of civic engagement, such as participation in local elections or activities, or attitudes toward local governance. The surveys administered before and after the interventions showed that participants’ levels of engagement and their attitudes remained largely unchanged.

In a sense, this is no surprise. The story's already given more confirmation to what appears apparent otherwise: Contra the old cliché, all politics is national, at least for Republicans. When state House and state Senate candidates in contested GOP primaries are groveling for a Trump endorsement, what else could it be?

And, they're not disengaged. A survey said 92 percent voted in the 2018 midterm general election. Rather, they're SO engaged, in all politics as national, that the regional paper can't make a dent.

North Carolina? Similar if not quite so bad:

A similar study conducted by Andrew Trexler at Duke University found strikingly similar results. About 500 registered voters in North Carolina were offered a two-month free digital subscription to the Raleigh News & Observer. But uptake was exceptionally low, with only 3.8% of those who received the offer activating their free subscription.

Ye gads. And, the kicker at the end is right. Even if you could get people to read, what can you get them to do?

CJR/Tow has its own Arlie Russell Hochschild

CJR would be Columbia Journalism Review. Tow would be Columbia's Tow Center for Digital Journalism.

And, its Arlie Russell Hochschild, promoting the newspaper version of a librul listening tour, would be Doron Haussig.

Taussig ignores that, a la Twitter, many of the bitchy conservatives want to "own the libs," if not just troll them. Those with more brains see this as a local-level version of Overton Window shifting.

Another reason I'm a leftist — but a skeptical one! — not a librul, and within this biz, still wanting out while eyeballing certain finish lines at the same time.