Why I Cancelled my Subscription to the Register-Guard

To the Editor:

          A full seven weeks ago I cancelled my subscription to the Register-Guard and am still waiting for a $300 refund. It was not an easy decision for this subscriber of nearly a quarter of a century.  I made the decision thoughtfully, not because I was upset, though I don’t like what I see coming for this once friendly hometown newspaper.  

          I have been there before.  My family-owned hometown newspaper in Ohio was purchased by corporate interests and within three years, a respectable journal became something a bright 8^th grader could edit. 

          But, specifically, why did I cancel my subscription?   The first reason has nothing to do with the new ownership.  I found reading the paper every morning depressing. I cannot remember a time when there was such rancor, such meanness, in our national politics. At the state level, the PERS scandal continues.  The legislators who control the system are participants in this generous retirement program and, therefore, have no reason to reform it.  At the local level, the issue of a new city hall is as far from being resolved as it was years ago when I and others pushed for an easy solution: the EWEB building, That option  is even more attractive now that the area adjacent to the EWEB building will be developed into a highly attractive riverfront space.

          Yet another reason I cancelled the Register-Guard was the decision to sharply reduce the space allotted for letters to the editor.  That was an important community forum and, yes –– all the letters focused on Trump began to bore–– but surely an editor could have controlled that by choosing which letters to print.    

          Yet another reason to cancel my subscription was the decision to eliminate the weekly review section.  Yes, there are other sources for such thought pieces.  I subscribe to half a dozen of them. But how many R-G readers are likely to subscribe to other sources?  I would add that that section of the paper could have been made much more interesting.  The message I got from the closure was we are not interested in readers who think.

          That I have had to wait seven weeks for a refund of $300 seems to confirm the rightness of my decision to cancel.  I have called the circulation department twice and left an email once that should have evoked some response but did not.  l think the warm and friendly circulation staff, when under the former local management of the old Register-Guard, would have been more responsive.   And I would have had my refund weeks before now.