The Print Decision: Stop, Shrink, or Charge More

**Episode Summary** In this episode, Pete and Tyler compare a decade of print publisher stories, starting with a recent closure that came down to debt from an old acquisition, not readers. They walk through three publishers who each handled the print decision differently: Brew Your Own and Winemaker, Track & Field News, and My Villager. Then they get into the fix that matters most once print goes away, the registration wall, and why your print archive belongs on the web as real HTML, not a flipbook. **What You'll Learn** - One or two local newspapers close in the US every week. The closure Pete and Tyler discuss this episode came down to debt from an old acquisition, not a lack of readers. - Public notices (probate filings, court orders, anything states mandate be published) are why a lot of small papers still print. Qualifying takes twelve straight months of print publication, and the rules differ by state. - The New York Times' circulation is about 4% print today. That 4% is loyal and pays well for it, which is a big part of why the print edition still makes sense. - Print isn't winning new subscribers anywhere Pete and Tyler have seen. It retains an aging base while digital is where the growth happens. - Design-driven, lean-back magazines (fishing, boating, hobbyist niches) can make print the actual product. Transactional, lean-in news content generally can't. - Brew Your Own and Winemaker went cold turkey on print and rebuilt their readership within a year. - Track & Field News dropped print for nine months, lost half its older readers who wouldn't log in, then relaunched print-on-demand at close to five times the original price. - My Villager flipped its free weekly in Saint Paul to paid print and paid digital and grew from there. - The registration wall converts 2x to 7x more email signups than a standard newsletter opt-in (3.2 to 6.7% versus 0.9%, across nine publishers on the same tool). - Get your print archive onto the web as real HTML articles, not flipbooks. Modern Drummer doubled its site traffic in a year just by publishing one new issue and one archive issue online each month. **Resources Mentioned** - Leaky Paywall: publisher's AI survival guide, referenced for the registration wall and email growth numbers - Publisher's AI Survival Guide: the free 65-page guide Pete mentions on the show, pops up on the Leaky Paywall homepage - Reissue: turns print PDF archives into web-ready WordPress posts - Real 3D Flipbook: the WordPress plugin Pete and Tyler recommend for digital flipbook editions