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Writer Virginia Postrel offers this lament on her Dynamist blog:
After hitting the LA Times paywall one too many times, I decided I should invest in a subscription. I was signing up for Sunday delivery, which comes with digital access but costs $1.99 a week compared to $3.99 a week for digital-only access. (You can see the advertising model at work in those prices.) But as I filled out the form, I noticed the following below the required phone number:
By giving your phone number here, you agree the Los Angeles Times may call you about marketing, sales or promotional events, and may use an automatic dialer, text message or prerecorded voice to do so.You can't subscribe without giving them your phone number. So that's why the LAT lost this potential subscriber.
At last check, LAT Sunday circulation (print) was 850,267. At its peak, Sunday circulation was about 1.5 million.
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted
until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.