By Kenneth J. Souza
Anchor Staff
FALL RIVER, Mass. — For the first time in 13 years, to offset ever-escalating postal and printing costs, The Anchor is increasing the annual subscription rate for the official Catholic newspaper of the Fall River Diocese.
Effective immediately, the price for a one-year subscription (49 issues) to The Anchor will be $20.
While there are many factors that influenced the price adjustment, the main reasons for the increase at this time include an industry-wide jump in the cost of paper due to the shutting down of one of three major paper mills in Canada recently and also changes in the price structure to mail out The Anchor via the U.S. Postal Service.
“It’s really amazing that we haven’t had to have a price increase in the past 13 years, but that has basically been a result of a steady base of loyal subscribers and the fact that we’ve always run a very lean operation,” said Anchor Executive Editor Father Roger J. Landry. “But with the massive increases in the cost of paper at the end of 2008, not to mention steep increases in postage, our per issue cost has gone up dramatically, making a price increase necessary.”
Although inflation has steadily driven up the costs of just about everything else over the last 13 years, Father Landry said The Anchor has managed to delay the inevitable price hike by cutting corners in other areas.
“Before the increases in paper cost, we were running each year a little in the black,” Father Landry said. “But after they went into effect, we’ve been running a steady monthly deficit. We delayed looking at the price increase until the time when we were doing the annual five-year parish assessment review, so that the price increase and the assessment adjustments could be made at the same time, to ensure that the price increase would be adequate to help us pay our bills.”
Another factor that influenced the long-overdue price hike at this time was the recent decline in parish enrollments, which directly impact the assessments levied to each parish to support The Anchor each year.
“Over the past five years the parish assessments, which are based on about 25 percent of registered households in a parish averaged over a three-year period, have gone down by 1,140,” Father Landry explained. “So we needed to incorporate those losses along with the losses due to the skyrocketing costs of paper and postage. We’re hopeful that with the current increase, we won’t need to revisit the issue of our cover price until the next five-year review in 2015.”
Comparatively speaking, the cost for a gallon of gasoline in 1997 — the last year The Anchor implemented a price increase — was about $1.22 per gallon in most U.S. cities. A loaf of bread that year averaged $1.17 while a movie ticket was about $4.50. While these costs have essentially doubled since then, The Anchor’s subscription price has remained fixed at $14.
In looking at other Catholic weeklies serving similar dioceses and even those within the greater New England region, The Anchor has consistently been the most reasonably priced, Father Landry said.
“When you look at the other Catholic newspapers in New England, they all charge between $20 and $30,” he said. “When you look at the 16 newspapers across the country with circulations between 25,000 and 35,000, we have easily been the least expensive. The average cost for newspapers our size is $23, so The Anchor still remains a great bargain comparatively.”
Even with the rate increase, the average cost of one Anchor edition is approximately 42 cents, well below the average cost of many daily newspapers across the region.
