I just got an email from the the Senior Manager of Customer Care at The Wall Street Journal this morning.
The solution to that delivery problem I’ve been having?
“Dear Subscriber,
I am writing to inform you about changes in our production and delivery operations that will impact the delivery of your Journal subscription.
At Dow Jones and Company, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, we work very hard to provide our customers with the highest quality delivery service. However, recent changes in transportation logistics have made it impossible to continue delivering your Monday – Saturday Journal on the day of publication. Effective for the issue date of June 9, 2011, your weekday Journal subscription will be delivered by carrier or by the United States Postal Service, as it is today, but one day after publication date. ”
Well, shit.
Getting the newspaper in the mail? And assuming they mail it immediately on the day of production, that’s still going to take 3 or 4 days after the publication date to get here.
I wanted the newspaper on the same day it was printed. That’s why I skipped out on the Washington Post and the New York Times postal mail delivery and chose The Wall Street Journal home delivery. After all, old news is… well, old news.
The email also had a link to a 30 day subscription to WSJ online, but if I wanted that format, I would’ve signed up for it on my Kindle.
So that’s the end of it. The only “real” newspaper’s delivery in deeeep south Texas is now kaput.
The fact I can’t get a real newspaper delivered every day to my home address tells me three things…
#1: Transportation logistics? That’s the reason the newspaper quit this area? There’s no internet-and-print option to a local newspaper printer? They’re still delivering newspapers on trucks? I’m going to feel pretty rotten if I was the only reason some poor semi truck driver had to come all the way down to the Texas valley!
Which brings me to…
#2: There’s a wide open market down here for a company that will print and deliver “real” newspapers. The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The LA Times and (shudder) USA TODAY are newspapers I’ve read before that are completely unavailable down here in the Texas valley. The local rag is a sad joke, and maybe a “city hub” newspaper printer could sell and distribute a bundle of the top 5 papers to the local schools, libraries, bookstores, etc.
#3: I may need to move since no major newspaper delivers to the area I live in. That’s a pretty big “WARNING! DANGER WILL ROBINSON!” sign right there.
Seriously, thanks for trying Wall Street Journal. It was great while it lasted. I’ll get your print edition again. Someday.
