Who Would Subscribe to a Bankrupt Newspaper?

The automakers assert that bankruptcy isn’t an option for their companies, arguing that purchasing a car is different from buying, say, a ticket from a bankrupt airline. A car is a long-term investment of a lot of money, not a smaller one-time purchase you’ll use once in the near future. Car buyers need to know the makers and dealers will be around for service, recalls, annoying mailers inviting you to trade in prematurely during a Summer Tent Sale Blowout, etc.

Which brings me to the news that the Tribune Co., publisher of the Chicago Tribune, has may //edit 6:30 p.m.//declared bankruptcy. Curiously, it raises the same question: Would you subscribe to a bankrupt newspaper? I think not.

After all, subscribing to a newspaper is a long-term commitment too. Seven-day home delivery will set you back $156 per year. For that kind of dough I expect the company will still be around to deliver the goods.

I need to know that not only that the newspaper itself will arrive at the base of my juniper bush by 6 a.m. I expect the plastic wrapper bag, which I use every day to scoop my spaniel’s poop. I expect other subscriber services too: the annual calendar bundled with a solicitation for a holiday tip for the faceless delivery person, etc.

And don’t forget membership in Subscriber Advantage, a valuable rewards program available only to subscribers.

This program provides among many other features full access to 365 days of Tribune archives, exclusive invitations to VIP events, a monthly exclusive e-mail introducing me to a Tribune reporter, and all sorts of discounts. For example, Subscriber Advantage members get 20 percent off opening-night tickets to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the Chicago Theatre. If I subscribe, man, I expect the goods.

So no, I don’t think I’m going to subscribe to the Tribune. It’s just too big a long-term investment with too much uncertainty attached.

I could subscribe to the Chicago Sun-Times instead. While it’s a stabler business–which is to say it’s not been driven to the precipice of bankruptcy by a swaggering ignoramus who purchased the paper with debt I can’t believe anyone was stupid enough to give him. But then, no newspaper is really all that stable a business these days. A subscription is just too much of a commitment.

So I think I’ll just read the news on the Tribune’s website.

The content’s free, and I have a sense that it’s going to be around a lot longer than the printed newspaper.