Newspaper value

Our local newspaper in Chapel Hill, the Herald-Sun, ran a full page print promotion today contending that the coupons in the Sunday edition on any one Sunday add up to 179.96, on average, and that a year's 7-day subscription is only 174, thereby paying for itself in coupons on a single day. It goes on to say that the total annual coupon savings for 52 weeks is, on average, 2,159.

There is a phone number to call.

There is no website mention. No e-mail. No suggestion that the printed value asserted in the ad has anything to do with the electronic life of the newspaper.

I think this is as good an example as I could advance of why newspapers show few signs of survivability.