LIHU‘E — Single copies of The Garden Island will go up in price from 50 cents to 75 cents effective Monday, while the Sunday edition will remain at $1.25, TGI Publisher-Editor Randy Kozerski announced this week. “The price increase is
LIHU‘E — Single copies of The Garden Island will go up in price from 50 cents to 75 cents effective Monday, while the Sunday edition will remain at $1.25, TGI Publisher-Editor Randy Kozerski announced this week.
“The price increase is only a partial offset to the increased input costs that we’ve endured over the many years since the last price change,” Kozerski said Friday. “This pricing strategy will allow us to continue to provide local, relevant and timely news that our readers have come to expect and appreciate.”
The costs for newsprint, ink and wages, as well as freight to have items shipped from other islands and the Mainland, have gone up considerably in recent years, Circulation Director Kyle Larson said, calling the price change part of “ongoing efforts to mitigate increases to the cost of doing business” that had been studied for the past three years but finally became a necessity.
“We’re not immune to that,” Larson said. “We’re a business.”
Larson said the price last increased from 35 cents to 50 cents at least nine years ago, possibly more, adding that other commodities like gasoline, milk and rent or mortgage payments have gone up considerably more in the last decade.
While the daily paper will be going up 25 cents, the Sunday edition will remain at $1.25 despite recent additions like the new local weekly nightlife guide Kaua‘i Times, which also includes primetime television listings and music and event calendars, Larson said.
“I would expect there to be some initial price resistance, but at the end of the day … we’re still significantly more affordable than our competitors,” Kozerski added.
Larson agreed that single-copy sales could be impacted but pointed to the value of home delivery subscriptions, which will be rising by 25 cents per week instead of 25 cents per day.
“I’m hoping our subscriptions increase because it’s still so affordable to have it delivered to your home,” Larson said.
Four-week subscriptions now cost $11.50, 13-week subscriptions $34.75, 26-week subscriptions $63 and 52-week subscriptions $121, Larson said, making a year subscription the best deal at $2.33 per week, roughly equivalent to the cost of three daily newspapers.
