‘Mirror‘ subscription price increasing in October

Stacks of the Manchester Mirror ready to be separated into delivery stacks and a stack for subscriptions.

by Sara Swanson

the Manchester Mirror began offering a USPS subscription option in 2016. At the time we decided to charge $50 for an annual subscription, $28 for a 6-month subscription, and $15 for a 3-month subscription, and we haven’t raised the cost over the past 8 years. Unfortunately, we’ve reached the point where we have to raise the price. Starting October 1, 2024, a 1-year subscription will now be $60, a 6-month subscription will be $34, and a 3-month subscription will be $18.

Subscriptions have never been a money-making endeavor for us. We want to get the Mirror into as many hands as possible and try to do that in a way that is free to the reader, which is why the Mirror is free online with no paywall and free copies are available to be picked up all over Manchester and from our newspaper box. However, we knew that not everyone can access the paper in these ways so we decided to offer the subscription option for residents who don’t have high-speed internet access (or prefer to read a print copy), don’t come into town, and don’t have anyone who can pick up a copy for them, and for former residents who moved out of the area and want to stay connected.

At the time we began offering mailed subscriptions, the 2-ounce stamp we use cost $.68. With the envelope and label, the material cost to mail a copy of the newspaper to a subscriber for a year was $40.80. Knowing that the cost of postage increases regularly, we set the annual subscription price at $50 to give ourselves a buffer. As the cost of stamps increased we shot past “breaking even” on materials years ago and now with the current cost of a 2-oz stamp at $1.01, we lose $10/year on an annual subscription.

So out of necessity we are raising the cost of the annual subscription to the current “break even” rate of $60/year starting in October. If you have been thinking about subscribing for yourself or on behalf of someone, you still have a month to do it at the old rate! Send a check to the Manchester Mirror, PO Box 696, Manchester, MI 48158 with a note that you’d like to subscribe and the address you’d like the subscription sent to. If you’d like to pay by credit card, send us an email at themanchestermirror@gmail.com and we’ll email you an invoice that you can pay online. All current subscribers whose subscriptions expire before December have had renewal notices sent and can resubscribe at the old rate at any point before their subscriptions expire.

For as little as $1 a month, you can keep Manchester-focused news coverage alive.

by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and founder of the Manchester Mirror.