Easy Reader shifts to digital subscriptions on 55th Anniversary

A refusal to sing for our supper on
Easy Reader’s 55th Anniversary

Dear Readers and Advertisers:

On behalf of the Easy Reader staff, thank you Hermosa, Manhattan and Redondo residents, and businesses for your support over the past half century.

It does not seem like 55 years because every week there are new stories to write, new events to photograph, and new businesses to advertise. 

We look forward to many more years of reporting on the three Beach Cities. 

But… and it’s a big “but.”

There will not be a 56th Easy Reader anniversary issue if the paper continues with the advertiser-based business model that, for the past 100 years, has delivered news for free to newspaper readers, radio listeners and television viewers.

Most readers know that traditional media is in a death spiral because advertisers are splitting their budgets between traditional media and social media.

News deserts are common. 

The Easy Reader in your hands has over 80 advertisers, about the same number as in previous years. But the ads are smaller, and the dollars fewer.

Few newspapers in the country have found a sustainable way to make up for advertising revenue lost to social media. Those that have, most notably the New York Times, have replaced lost advertising revenue with digital subscriptions.

Easy Reader is banking on that strategy.

We are asking the 45,000 Beach City households who received this Easy Reader in the mail to pay $10 a month for a digital subscription to EasyReaderNews.com. 

If 1,000 readers subscribe, the revenue will cover this issue’s postage cost. 

If 3,000 readers subscribe, the revenue will cover this issue’s postage and printing. 

We need a lot more than 3,000 new subscribers.

I cringe every time I hear NPR, PBS, and even New York Time reporters “singing for their supper.” 

Newspapers are a business, not a charity. People who patronize a business without paying shouldn’t expect that business to continue serving them. 

Below is a QR code leading to EasyReaderNews.com subscription payment options.

For our long time, digitally challenged readers, checks are also acceptable. 

And you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone

For the times, they are a-change-in.

Thank you again for supporting Easy Reader since 1970. 

Kevin Cody

Publisher

EasyReaderNews.com digital subscriptions payment options:

• Click on the QR Code below 

• Mail a check for $100 ($20 discount) to Easy Reader, Box 427, Hermosa Beach, Ca., 90254

• Click here for  EasyReaderNews.com online subscription

Thank you from the Easy Reader Staff