Left In Lowell

Last night a young man knocked on my door and tried to sell me a 13 week subscription to the Lowell Sun (hard copy). If every day you purchase the paper at one of the boxes located at the entrance of your local DD, at the end of the week it would have cost you $4.75. This promotion, available only to those of us who have not subscribed to the Sun in the past 30 days, costs $1.99/week. And there is the $2,000 grocery giveaway associated with this promotion.

I declined not because I do not read the Sun, because I do. Now, if they want to charge me $1.99/week to access the on-line version first thing in the morning, I might go for it.

With this coming 5th District Congressional race, the Sun has a perfect opportunity to be extensively quoted and its articles linked throughout the internet. They should really, really review their business model and make the on-line version available first thing in the morning, not high noon. As I am writing this, they still have not posted their popular Sunday Column of April 8th on their web site. If they are going to quote BMG posts and make references to specifics blogs, they need to move in real time.

By the way, if you have not yet had a chance to read Mike LaFleur’s three part series (here and here) in the Sun on the collapse subprime mortgage industry and its impact on local families, do so. The concluding article will appear tomorrow.