News about My Clay Sun

Thank you for your response, for not burying it, and for your continued dedication to the Clay County Community.

Let me get this straight. First, you make a big marketing splash that MyClaySun would be published three days a week. Then, you eliminate the Friday edition. Next, you raise the price of paper 50% (from 50 cents to 75 cents). Now you are down to one edition of MyClaySun a week. Seems like the TimesUnion thinks Clay Countians are stupid!!!  Well, the one has stopped his subscription after more than 20 years!!!!

I'll get my Clay County news from the Clay Today!!!

Lamar, et al,

Having worked in my home town newspapers in my younger days & keeping track of the news business for the past few years, I can understand the economics of the situation that is causing this sad change.  Many factors come into view.

I've been a bit disappointed in the situation, but with the prominence of the internet & costs of other factors always on the rise, I am not surprised.  One of the newspapers for which I worked died in March of 1979 & it was very much like a funeral.  I only hope that we aren't witnessing the death of the paper press over all.  My bestwishes & thanks to you and all of the people at MCS & the TU.

Rich K

I'm really sad to hear that we will only get one issue a week now. I believe that was the case several years ago before MCS when we had a special edition for the suburbs in Thursdays.

I don't understand the thinking of the newspaper. There have been several instances in the last year of providing less content (many section editors are no longer employed such as food editor Dan McDonald, though he still contributes on occasion) and now the loss of two-thirds of the MCS. Are the other Neighborhoods also down to one issue a week? So now we are starting to get substantially less content for a higher price. The paper is not the only one doing this. Many products have now downsized their packaging for the same or higher prices. The problem is that papers are in a fight for their life due to other sources of the news available for less costs. Providing less content for higher cost is not  the way to survive in my opinion.

There are many of us that enjoy reading a physical paper with our morning coffee and will continue to do so unless it becomes prohibitively expensive. I was out of town for four months over the summer and still was able to enjoy the Times-Union and MCS each morning over the internet but it just isn't the same as reading the physical paper. I just hope we are not seeing the demise of what used to be a pretty good paper.

Welcome, Gator44.

I believe if your research the issue, you will find that MCS was originally offered 4 days a week.

Further research will show that other neighborhood "Sun" editions have also been cut.

...on daily TU home delivery.

I've been on the fence regarding dropping the paper since subscription price has risen and content lessened in recent months.

Jacksonville, national, and global news have always been marginal compared with other city dailies I've taken over the years. Clay County news tipped the balance slightly in favor of keeping home delivery.

 in the face of cutting MCS to once per week, dropping home delivery seems both economically and environmentally responsible - I can grab the paper or just MCS on Saturday at a convenience store in future.

I have also noticed that we no longer have a travel section. Yesterday's paper had a whopping two pages devoted to Travel at the back of another section. The business section has become very disappointing and the special Monday business section no longer exists.

It's my understanding that the majority of a newspaper's revenue is derived from advertising. This revenue depends on circulation and circulation depends on "perceived" value to the subscriber. My perception is that I am receiving less and less value from this particular subscription! Not to mention they took down my paper box (it had been in place for 29 years) while I was gone this summer and my paper is now wet and unreadable when it rains. When I stop my paper next summer for my summer absence, I probably will not restart it on my return.

I have seen many compaints about this reduction in content but apparently the management is not listening. When management doesn't listen to its long-time customers, the business slowly dies. This paper is well on its way to that slow death unless it reverses its current direction.

I know there are numerous disappointments with the reduction of editions of My ClaySun - but, personally the biggest disappointment for me is that I moved to Clay County years ago due to the small town mentality - I loved seeing my neighbors at the grocery and knowing the people that were featured in the local newspaper - MyClaySun has been one of those gems I came to adore about living in a "small town".  However, recently with the extreme and hasty growth of Clay County there are few small town aspects to hold on to.  This is just another example of us losing our small town and becoming another statistic in an overpopulated County....  So sad...