Amtrak Cancels its Newspaper Subscription

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rickycourtney

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On the Amenities Being Eliminated from Long Distance Routes post there was one cut TBA:

Complimentary Newspapers - Effective Date TBA. Research is underway regarding existing contracts in place with current vendors
We now know when that cut will happen:

Effective June 9, all complimentary newspapers currently distributed to our long-distance sleeping car passengers will be discontinued, coinciding with the release of our new system timetable. An estimated cost saving of approximately $282,000 (on an annualized basis) will be realized from this effort, supporting our Financial Excellence goal of reducing costs to improve the company’s financial bottom line.
 
Cue the long list of people who are eager to tell everyone else how little they care about this or any other amenity.
:D But please don't shoot the messenger.

Being a good journalist I just posted the facts without making any commentary.

Although I work in the broadcast journalism industry... I might feel differently if I worked at a newspaper.
 
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Love the name:Financial Excellence! Everything in Govt needs a Code Name!

I'm with Charlie,I won't miss the USA Talbloid, er Newspaper! And the Huge Savings of a couple of hundred grand will really impress the budget hawks in the Congress!

What's next, cut the toilet paper?
 
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WHAT, and I take my first sleeper journey June 10th! Now I'm going to have to get my news via my phone or kindle like I do every other day of the year.
 
More importantly, I'll have to bring my own "Shove this in the door so it'll stop rattling" stock. :angry2:
 
Love the name:Financial Excellence! Everything in Govt needs a Code Name!

I'm with Charlie,I won't miss the USA Talbloid, er Newspaper! And the Huge Savings of a couple of hundred grand will really impress the budget hawks in the Congress!

What's next, cut the toilet paper?
Wait, I'm not supposed to use that national newspaper as toilet paper? :giggle:
 
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I am currently on #8 (3 hours late in WI) and NO papers were distributed to sleeper pax the entire trip. I believe Amtrak has started this additional cut early.
 
Hopefully the local news vendors in towns where long distance trains make extended stops will make sure stocked paper machines are on the platform ready to go when the trains pull in. For example if I am on the northbound Starlight I would be more than happy to stuff a few quarters in a machine at K-Falls to get The Oregonian.
 
Hopefully the local news vendors in towns where long distance trains make extended stops will make sure stocked paper machines are on the platform ready to go when the trains pull in. For example if I am on the northbound Starlight I would be more than happy to stuff a few quarters in a machine at K-Falls to get The Oregonian.
Pretty sure The Oregonian doesn't have newstand copies distributed that widely around the state. (And in all honesty, The Oregonian is a thin tabloid these days, a mere shell of its former self). But point taken, nonetheless. The Klamath Falls paper would do well to install and stock a newstand there (if they haven't already).
 
Two so called newspapes I don't want:

USA Today and the local rag in Austin that we call the Real Estatesman! (Austin Statesman) When I take LD trips I'll snag a Sunday NY Times and a good book! Good idea to have paper hawkers or machines @ the Major stops!
 
When I'm traveling, the last thing I want is national news. I'm trying to immerse myself in the place I'm at, and nothing does that better than a good local newspaper. The smaller the town, often the better the newspaper. It can give you an image of the local folks, and their concerns. A lot of that scale of journalism never make it online, or is obscure and hard to find. So I hope some local circulation managers with an Amtrak station nearby will take the hint and plant a coin box there.

I regret the loss of morning papers in the sleeper, but other lost amenities mattered to me more.
 
I won't miss the USA Today. I have mixed feelings on losing the local papers, but the feelings are just mixed. I'd happily trade the papers for some of the other amenities, but as others have said, this is probably the least of the losses given that a ride in a sleeper is about the only time I actually read any hard-copy newspaper.
 
What I found amazing on the eastbound Empire Builder was that there was a Wall Street Journal box at the Whitefish station stocked with that morning's paper--at 730 a.m. or thereabouts. Can't figure out where the nearest printing plant is from where it has to be trucked, but probably Spokane or Great Falls, but it tells you all you need to know about the upscale demographics in the Whitefish area for sure that they get it there!
 
I agree that I won't miss the newspaper.

However, I do want to laugh at the attempt at fiscal responsibility. At the rate the federal government spends money (more than $7 million per minute), they saved 2.4 seconds of government spending.
 
I agree that I won't miss the newspaper.

However, I do want to laugh at the attempt at fiscal responsibility. At the rate the federal government spends money (more than $7 million per minute), they saved 2.4 seconds of government spending.
Yeah, but Amtrak overall only accounts for a few hours of the government's annual spending. This is really more about stuff internal to Amtrak (and presumably reducing the operating subsidy). I forget the grand total of the projected savings from the volley of cuts, but Amtrak's operating subsidy need has a decent shot of coming in under $300m this year.
 
I agree that I won't miss the newspaper.

However, I do want to laugh at the attempt at fiscal responsibility. At the rate the federal government spends money (more than $7 million per minute), they saved 2.4 seconds of government spending.
Yeah, but Amtrak overall only accounts for a few hours of the government's annual spending. This is really more about stuff internal to Amtrak (and presumably reducing the operating subsidy). I forget the grand total of the projected savings from the volley of cuts, but Amtrak's operating subsidy need has a decent shot of coming in under $300m this year.
I think the total was $2.4M.
 
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