New Look, Higher Price For Philly's Two Dailies
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - As of today, if you buy either of Philadelphia's major daily newspapers at your local newsstand, the price is $1 per copy.
But management of the two newspapers says the 25-cent price hike brings readers several design, content, and product enhancements.
The Newspaper Association of America says that more than half of the big-city newspapers charge 75 cents these days. (Forty-three percent charge 50 cents and only six percent charge $1 a copy.)
But publisher Greg Osberg (far right in photo) defends the price hikes here.
"I think the price-value equation that we're offering is a tremendous advantage for the consumer," he says.
The Inquirer is adding more local and original content and less syndication in the A section, Osberg says, with more rotating columnists and daily themes in the business section.
At the Daily News, incoming editor Larry Platt (second from right) promises a feisty paper that's loud and irreverent.
"The mainstays of our coverage over the years have been sports and investigative reporting. We remain committed to those areas," he said.
Former governor Ed Rendell will do weekly sports columns in the Daily News, and author Buzz Bissinger, the former Pulitzer-prize-winning reporter for the Inquirer, will do guest columns.
Platt, a former editor of Philadelphia magazine, promises to go on rants as well.
Reported by Steve Tawa, KYW Newsradio 1060.
