Jeffry Bryan

Review of Reading Eagle Company

My wife, Cindy, and I are long-time subscribers. U...

My wife, Cindy, and I are long-time subscribers. Until new ownership took over this past summer, the Reading Eagle was an exceptional local newspaper - one of the best small market papers anywhere in the country in my opinion. Under new ownership, however, things have changed, and not for the better. Sadly, our local paper has deteriorated rapidly. The paper contains less than half the content from a year ago, some days only having two sections when it used to contain four or five. As a real kick in the teeth, though, the new owners have doubled the price and gouged loyal subscribers with their new outrageous subscription rates. The daily newsstand rate also increased from $1 to $2 within the past week. Outstanding local journalists were let go and much of the previous content has disappeared. The Sports section is a shell of what it once was, both in size and content, the Weekend section no longer emphasizes many of our local Berks County events, the Berks and Beyond section contains significantly less local news, and many editorial columns and other content have been eliminated or greatly reduced. Last but not least, the Reading Eagle is abandoning, and clearly does not appreciate, its long-time subscribers that keep it in business. In September, 2019 I paid $78 for one year of Saturday/Sunday home delivery and daily online access. My subscription was to run from October 5, 2019 through October 4, 2020. Customer service somehow messed up my subscription and is incorrectly telling me that it expires on June 20, 2020 instead of October 4, 2020. As of today, February 5, 2020, after well more than a dozen phone calls over the past four months, they still have not corrected THEIR blatantly obvious mistake. What a wonderful business model! Buyout a financially struggling local paper, lay off many of your long-time, local journalists and other employees, reduce the content by half while doubling the price, and, finally, put the shaft to your few remaining loyal customers, such as myself, through incompetency, dishonesty, or both. Not only have you already probably lost countless subscribers, but also, do you really believe you will actually pick up any new subscribers or readers through these types of actions? How do you even plan to stay in business, or do you even care? Maybe you'll just run the business into the ground and then declare bankruptcy after there is nothing left. My horrendous subscription experience would NEVER have happened under old ownership. That, I can assure you! One simple phone call would have remedied the problem, which would have been highly unlikely to have even occurred in the first place. Hopefully, someone with the power to correct the issue reads my comments and actually cares enough to properly address my concerns. More likely, though, is that the Reading Eagle will see my post and red flag it to have it removed, thus squelching my 1st Amendment rights. How ironic that would be! If the Reading Eagle cannot fix a simple problem like this after four months and over a dozen phone calls, they don't deserve to stay in business. If you want to keep me as a customer, then fix YOUR mistake; honor the subscription terms that were agreed upon when I paid you $78 in September, and, one more thing - provide me with a free one-year complimentary subscription for all of the aggravation you put me through and for all of my valuable time I have wasted calling and trying to fix YOUR mistake. I don't think it's too much to ask; however, based upon my experience thus far, I certainly won't be holding my breath.