Mainstream Media Fails

The Turtlegram Is Making The Elderly Pay 20% More In Subscription Costs While Clive Drives A BMW Convertible

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A turtle rider whose 80 year old mother subscribes to the Turtlegram forwarded us an email that she was sent from the Turtlegram, letting her know about their price increases. Here is the bill sent to them in December:

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As you can see, the price for a year’s subscription was $179.40. Here is the email they were sent about the new rates:

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The price jumped 20% to $213.20. And for what? Has the quality of the news paper gotten better? Nope. Has Clive McFarlane been fired? Nope. He continues to disrespect teachers and police in his columns while attempting to divide us along racial lines. Have they increased their local stories and contributions? Nope. They’ve increased the amount of AP stories while neglecting local issues. Have they brought you hard hitting stories like Turtleboy has? Nope. They’ve made a concerted effort to cover up critical aspects of stories involving Mosaic Cultural Complex and the Spencer-East Brookfield school scandal.

So why are they increasing their prices by 20%? Simple – they’re losing advertisers because their prices are INSANE. Here’s a link to their media kitAs you can see, they charge local businesses an arm and a leg to appear on their website, before raising prices on the 80 year old grandmothers who still subscribe:

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It costs $3,501 per month for an ad to be seen 450,000 times. We had more than four times that traffic last month and charge a fraction of that. We truly feel bad for anyone who hasn’t figured this out yet.

How can they continue to raise prices on what’s left of their loyal following? How come they can’t stabilize costs even while charging advertisers that amount of money? Simple – they employ so many writers, editors, and columnists, and have to pay for their salaries and health insurance. And while health insurance costs continue to rise the amount of subscriptions continues to decline. Countless people have cancelled specifically because of Clive McFarlane, yet they continue to keep him on the payroll and expect your 80 year old grandmother to pick up the tab.

It’s insane, and it’s why they’re so threatened by Turtleboy. We are destroying their business and forcing them to raise prices because we’ve created a superior product. Don’t worry though, we need some interns to help us with coffee runs, so Lyin’ Kimmy Ring and company won’t be unemployed for long.

 

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34 Comment(s)
  • Yeah
    April 25, 2016 at 10:23 pm

    Get a some writers to write about local sports and get obituaries put on your site. T&G will be dead in a couple of months.

  • Publius
    April 24, 2016 at 4:51 pm

    Newspapers are still relevant. papers much easier to read on train, subway, bus at the beach. plus a paper is much easier to read than online re: scanning the entire page. online its to easy to miss stuff. Glad TB posted, I was too lazy to pull out old bill. The paid thru date has me concerned. gonna have to look it up now.

  • Joe Max
    April 24, 2016 at 1:09 pm

    Newspapers are dying as a whole. They saw their day for decades or even centuries in some cases. Never even see anyone under 35 buying one anymore. Hardly see anyone buying or reading them now. Times change and the readers become less by the day !

  • Keen Observer
    April 24, 2016 at 8:41 am

    Old age discounts are crooked. We youngsters shouldn’t pay more to subsidize the old bastards and birches.

  • The Executioner
    April 23, 2016 at 6:32 pm

    oh…and elderly folks should be getting a DISCOUNT, not an increase. I hate that.

  • The Executioner
    April 23, 2016 at 6:30 pm

    so true…do you know how insanely expensive it is to place and ad or even an OBIT with these scammers? When my Dad died we could only place the obit in the Leominster Sentinel with a brief reference to it in the TG. Despite his lifelong career at Morgan Construction and the fact that there are many in the Worc area that do not read the Sentinel. Real pissah. I myself have advertised a rental property using TG Classifieds but, despite being able to write those costs off on my taxes, was so expensive I could only run the add for a few weeks and like the rental agencies I hired out there, was a complete waste of time. I don’t get anything but headlines from TG because after 3 clicks they want money. So greedy. Yet I get free email updates and access to the WCVB site…I just don’t need this ragpaper. And I agree about Clive…he’s a POS.

    • Manturtle Phoenix
      April 24, 2016 at 8:24 am

      @The Executioner. At the very least families should get free online T&G obits for their departed loved ones. A 250 word limit is reasonable and the Telegram should do something like that in the print version with a lower word limit but they won’t.

      If Turtleboy has the time he could set up an obit companion blog with a just a link posted on his main blog. Or maybe somebody else could set up the obit blog and run the thing with Turtleboy just providing the link.

  • Manturtle Phoenix
    April 23, 2016 at 1:01 pm

    Now Turtleboy you know that most of the Telegram’s expense increase is Baldino related.

    It’s a community policing and public health threat that somebody’s got to deal with. And we should all be grateful that the T&G took on that thankless, expensive job of watching Carlo to keep him from blocking traffic to protest the killing of another idiot who needed to get shot by the cops.

    Sure… some elderly folks have to pay the price but we can’t keep dumping such expenses on young people now can we?

  • UsualSuspect
    UsualSuspect
    April 23, 2016 at 8:32 am

    FYI – Obituaries are free to peruse on most newspaper websites, including the T&G, as people pay to place them.

    • juror seven
      April 23, 2016 at 3:55 pm

      What’s up with that one obit that has appeared for 6 straight days? It’s almost like Ground Hog’s Day, the movie.

      • The Executioner
        April 23, 2016 at 6:34 pm

        Someone had a lot of money to spend to do that…or it was just a TG error…

    • The Executioner
      April 23, 2016 at 6:33 pm

      And they pay a handsome price!

  • UsualSuspect
    UsualSuspect
    April 23, 2016 at 8:31 am

    I only get Sunday’s and holidays delivered, and for the last 3 years my Thanksgiving paper has failed to be on my doorstep. At the time, I specifically subscribed so I could get the Thanksgiving paper! The first year I figured it was a fluke. I was wrong, guess my carrier is out of town that day every year. I will not be renewing when the paper stops coming to my house.

  • T&G sinking ship
    April 23, 2016 at 5:51 am

    Their “snappy new” web page and a lot of their content now comes from their cousin the Metrowest news, whose reporters are arguably worse than the Turtlegrams!

  • Wheelwright
    April 23, 2016 at 5:44 am

    I called up those communists and cancelled my subscrption when they endorsed Bill Clinton for President. If it wasn’t for mentions by TBS I didn’t even know they were still in business.

    Do they still print a paper or is it all online Might be a good use to start my wood stove next winter if I could get a couple free issues.

    Clive: a load that should have been swallowed.

  • Willy Tilly
    April 22, 2016 at 5:43 pm

    Clive drives a Mercedes convertible, the small cheap one.
    YOu should do some fact checking some time.

    • FiestyLawyerLady
      April 23, 2016 at 1:10 pm

      The small cheap one? I guess it’s cheap if he has NO ADD-ONS. My model (2015, a starter benz because it’s my first one) has a base price of $33k with the addition of 4matic, GPS, heated seats, Harmon kardon, and a few extras… it jumped to $43k. Took me a while not to feel guilty about it. Let’s not forget about the awesome maintenance charges… $96 for a typical oil change, ect.

      If he lives in a dump, he shouldn’t be driving a mercedes unless his priorities are fucked.

  • Reddog
    April 22, 2016 at 3:54 pm

    Was gonna post, but figured it wouldn’t go up

  • John Henry
    April 22, 2016 at 3:38 pm

    I love the TurtleGram 3 premium clicks allowed each month.
    If there is ever more than 3 stories a month worth reading, I change from Chrome to FireFox and get 3 more Premium Clicks

    • Bowen Hardcase
      April 22, 2016 at 3:51 pm

      But I bet that’s never been necessary…

    • Wabbitt
      wabbitt
      April 22, 2016 at 4:47 pm

      Incognito mode. That’s how I read more than 5 Globe articles without paying. Because fuck Dan Shaunessey.

  • gb
    April 22, 2016 at 3:22 pm

    Canceled because of Clive!

  • juror seven
    April 22, 2016 at 1:53 pm

    For some reason unable to post any more of my comment.

  • juror seven
    April 22, 2016 at 1:39 pm

    I get on the phone to find out what this is all about. I hate calling them because it starts out talking to someone from a third world shit hole that reads from a script in bad English. She starts talking about costs going up and the publishers have added “Premium editions that cost more??? She used the Thanksgiving edition as an example of a “Premium”. Supposedly they will be adding up to 16 of these add filled, extra flyers that the advertiser is already paying to have included each year. Couldn’t get an answer to what happened to those 25 days’ worth of papers that I paid for IN FULL when I renewed in June 2015.

  • juror seven
    April 22, 2016 at 1:38 pm

    I received my renewal notice last week. I subscribe for the seven day package. Renew annually. Couldn’t believe what they attempted to pull. The price went from
    $377.00 to $410.80 when renewed. An increase of $33.80. I look to the top of the statement and see something more troubling than the new yearly cost. Statement says I’m paid thru 5/16/2016. I go back to my half of the bill from last year and see that I would be paid up until 6/10/2016. I’ve lost 25 days according to them.

  • juror seven
    April 22, 2016 at 1:37 pm

    I just had an interesting experience with the Turtlegram with my renewal notice. I attempted to post it, but because it was lengthy it didn’t work. I’ll try to post in sections.

  • Realist
    April 22, 2016 at 1:07 pm

    Did the T&G print something negative about Gaffney?

  • Tudor turtle
    April 22, 2016 at 12:50 pm

    BOYCOTT THE WORCESTER PRAVDA ! ! ! FOLLOW THE WORCESTER SUN INSTEAD ! ! !

  • Deb McNamara
    April 22, 2016 at 11:55 am

    Word, TB, word.

    • Robert
      April 22, 2016 at 12:24 pm

      Cancel.

  • Bowen Hardcase
    April 22, 2016 at 11:54 am

    Title is awfully sensationalistic, TBS… you don’t need anything more than the truth for your clicks.

  • Eddie
    April 22, 2016 at 11:29 am

    They inaccurately report information about business’s downtown!! Only one side is heard not the other!! Hopefully, you will pick this story up next time!!

  • LOB
    April 22, 2016 at 11:21 am

    Don’t forget the witch – Diane. BS plagiarist!

  • fordsnharleys
    Tngsucks
    April 22, 2016 at 11:05 am

    Figure out a way to import the obituaries to your site and it will be the death of them.

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