Chicago Tribune – Cashback, Rebates & Rewards

I have been a subscriber to the Chicago Tribune since 1974. For decades the print edition served me well. When it went digital so did I following them into new ways of delivering the news. Everything went pretty well for another decade while I still got home delivery and digital access. During the pandemic it was really good to have both versions of the paper available. Like many other publishers the Tribune Company saw a decline in their fortunes. The printed form of news declined while digital content (largely unedited) grew. The Tribune's management foolishly squandered the goodwill they had developed over a century or more of quality reporting, editorial and publishing. They were so distracted with their radio stations, television stations and the ridiculous Chicago Cubs that they allowed the New York Times to assume the most prominent space in journalism - including incredible digital access. They are the 800 pound gorilla of the news - digital and print. Now that Alden Capital owns what's left of the paper their focus is sucking every penny out of the shell that is left. The just announced increase in the price of the digital edition to $44.00 per month was the last straw for me. I am cancelling my subscription on Monday. I will no longer help fund their lust for cash. I have many reasons for this decision. They have been building up over the last few years. The price increase, though, is the straw that broke the camel's back. I frequently have had issues with the digital edition arriving (the pdf form) improperly formatted. Columns/stories would not open. Stories that were across multiple pages did not open in one document. Whole sections of the paper were not in the digital edition they email me daily (often the comics/puzzles). Alerts to their customer service people might get a response in a few days (well after the edition I was alerting them too was stale). Alden fired or forced out almost all the columnists, reviewers, critics, and editorial opinion writers. There still are many quality people writing for the Tribune but they are a skeleton of what used to be a robust source of news and culture. They started to fill the daily editions with reprints from the AP, NY Times, LA Times, etc. (I already see most of those in the NYT digital subscription I have). I will not longer pay to see the same stories reprinted in the ChiTrib that I have already read in the original source (the reprints are always a few days later than the original). I am guessing this delayed reprinting is required by the contract for using another paper's content. Alden turned the Trib into a joke. It is not a newspaper any longer. It is masquerading as a newspaper while serving only one need: satisfying Alden Capital's unrelenting greed. They now expect me to pay $528 per year for the paper. The NYT costs $328 per year for full access (the paper, the Sunday extras, food and cooking, Wirecutter (product reviews), etc.). The price of the ChiTrib, by comparison, is a rip off. I am not alone. Many of the people I know and see regularly are fed up too. We have moved to the Chicago Sun-Times for local reporting (they work on a donation model). I suspect Alden will see a wave of cancellations in the coming weeks. I am sorry for the hard working employees who still try to put out a quality product every day. Despite my warm feelings for the workers and their plight my 50 year relationship with the ChiTrib ends in 48 hours.

Ownership of the Chicago Tribune, Alden Global Capital, is a hedge fund whose leaders don't read newspapers. Among other activities, they special in very aggressive and deceptive billing including extreme price increases, no billing statements unless you pay $7 a month extra, 13-week billing cycles that get chewed up in 6 weeks due to extra expenses and customer service like robots. BEWARE!

Been a Chicago Tribune subscriber since the early 1980's. Cancelled subscription for 3rd time in the last 30 years. Invoice came at double the last statement. No records of paid statements on Tribune web site. About a month after I cancelled last time I received a call from Chicago Tribune customer service as to why I cancelled. I explained that my subscription had doubled and cancelled. Customer service resumed my subscription at standard rate and all was fine until last invoice.

The Chicago Tribune changed our billing for electronic addition without our consent in violation of their contract terms. We have asked them to correct our billing and issue a refund. Our requests have been ignored. We have asked that they place our complaint in arbitration and still we are ignored. We are required to arbitrate before we can file a lawsuit against them. A lawsuit obviously has its issues, and we were hoping they would deal with us in a reasonable manner. We have been left stranded by their actions.

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