Slowly But Surely, Hotels Scale Back Free Newspaper Distribution
Big news out of Marriott today: in response to guest demand for newspaper delivery dropping by about 25 percent, the hotel company has taken a step back and has decided to respond to the waning demand by giving guests the option to choose whether they want a copy of USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, a local paper (if one exists) or no paper delivered to their rooms at Marriott, JW Marriott and Renaissance properties. Beginning this June, Marriott Rewards members will be asked to update their online profiles to reflect their newspaper preferences, and other guests will select a newspaper option when they check in for their stays.
According to an Associated Press report, the adjusted newspaper program is "targeted to cut newspaper distribution by about 50,000 papers a day, or 18 million papers a year." It will save major money, it will seriously reduce waste, and — well, we hate to say it, but this probably is not going to mean good things for USA Today's circulation, which has already been kinda in-the-dumps lately.
Okay. Yes. This is a good move: this means hotel chains are acknowledging that not everyone reads newspapers anymore. It should not come as news (heh) that we have a bit of a unique perspective on this because a lot of us here at HC get the bulk of our news from online sources — online editions of newspapers, blogs, etc. Print editions of newspapers don't cross our desks too often because many of us just find it easier to go online since we're, you know, in front of our computers all day anyway. For some of us, the USA Todays outside our hotel room doors serve as nothing more than obstacles we need to step over on our way downstairs to get coffee. We think Marriott's got the right idea with this new program — but is anyone going to be upset about this? Is anyone going to be upset when hotel room newspapers disappear altogether?
[Photo: Robertjosiah]
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