Fringe Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 I think this varies depending on who your distributor is. The one that handles home delivery for my neighborhood has been pretty good about getting replacements for missing papers to me on the same day, usually within an hour or two of reporting it. Occasionally I don't get one until the next day. The guy who used to be the distributor several years ago even gave me his cell phone number and encouraged me to call him directly if I had a delivery problem, and again, whenever I had to call him, I'd get a same-day replacement. What really chaps my posterior is that the Powers that Be removed the option to request a credit for missing papers on the website in lieu of redelivery. There are times when I'd just as soon go buy a replacement paper at the gas station and request a credit rather than wait for redelivery. That, and the mess they made of the online comics page when they redesigned it several years ago, removing the functionality that allowed you to build your own custom page. They also seemed to have stopped issuing you credit when on vacation. They use to show that option when you put your subscription on vacation hold. Now you get two choices: deliver my papers when I return or don't deliver my papers when I return. Nothing is mentioned about a credit to your account. I did finally get a paper around 4pm that same day. Plus I got another one delivered with my next day's paper. Perhaps I will go stand under an overpass and sell the extra copy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Dogs Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Spoke to my brother, who lives in Houston: he told me that it took him 2 days before he got a newspaper last week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luminare Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Almost all major newspapers will have a kind of dumby site in lieu to the real thing which you will need to pay for. When you do pay for it, from what I hear, the content is quite good and fleshed out. Lets also remember that the Chronicle was one of the first to move from Newspapers to mostly Online. While not every article like in every newspaper or opinion column in paper or tv, it does do a decent job of covering Houston and other areas of town. It also does just good enough for articles to be picked up nationally and I do see chron articles mentioned in reddit feeds frequently. The biggest problem is that they have succumbed to the same problems most other journalist have, and that is the quickened pace of putting out articles just so they can be "first" rather than verifying sources, or correcting grammar, or what's worse is when you are trying to type articles up so quickly you own biases and inclinations will start to seep through instead of a more neutral informative article some major articles feel as if they have an agenda. The biggest improvements they can make is by disabling comments on general news topics and restricting it to only opinion pieces. CNN has done this on their website. At one point you could comment on almost every article, but then it just turns into a cesspool of racism, trolling, and downright despicable opinions. Of course CNN has also done the most terrible thing ever which is literally becoming the reporters of "Twitter News" *facepalm* When you put it up against other papers it's about the norm with current journalistic trends and attitudes. The great paradigm shift will be when cable/satellite tv takes inevitable plunge which will then kill the 24 news cycle as we know it and then you get news which has to survive purely for it's journalist merits rather than just.....omg we have like 8hrs of programming we have fill.....quick make up something! Of course it could create a feeding frenzy where news becomes so bit sized to get out stories quickly that it becomes insignificant.....but I'll take the former than the latter. Again I think the death of TV will be the big change when it comes to problems stated above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Dogs Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 They need to consider doing Disquis in their comments section: Texas Monthly recently unveiled theirs not too long ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mkultra25 Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 I just wish they'd remove all comments from their site. I think they're playing a game of reading peoples' comments (and trying to appease morons) when they need to realize that only morons and racists comment on their articles. The biggest improvements they can make is by disabling comments on general news topics and restricting it to only opinion pieces. CNN has done this on their website. At one point you could comment on almost every article, but then it just turns into a cesspool of racism, trolling, and downright despicable opinions. They need to consider doing Disquis in their comments section: Texas Monthly recently unveiled theirs not too long ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Dogs Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 Mkultra25, You'd think that the author of this article would consider that, but so far hasn't as of yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fringe Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 Excuse me for bumping this thread but just have to rant. The Chronicle has only gotten worse. When I called and asked about a vacation hold for two weeks and credit for no delivery they told me they no longer give credit since I have access to the online edition. Even though the digital edition costs less then half of what I pay for home delivery ($31 month). I would totally cancel the home delivery and just keep the digital access if their web page wasn't the worse I have ever seen. I have three different browsers I try to access it with and none work half the time. I like their writers and I like their content but I'm ready to dump the Chronicle for something less costly and more accessible. Anybody have any suggestions? Maybe USA today? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston19514 Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 What Chron articles have been picked up nationally in recent times (or, for that matter, ever?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
august948 Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 Excuse me for bumping this thread but just have to rant. The Chronicle has only gotten worse. When I called and asked about a vacation hold for two weeks and credit for no delivery they told me they no longer give credit since I have access to the online edition. Even though the digital edition costs less then half of what I pay for home delivery ($31 month). I would totally cancel the home delivery and just keep the digital access if their web page wasn't the worse I have ever seen. I have three different browsers I try to access it with and none work half the time. I like their writers and I like their content but I'm ready to dump the Chronicle for something less costly and more accessible. Anybody have any suggestions? Maybe USA today? Get the NoScript add on for firefox. It blocks all scripts running on a page and gives you a toggle list in case you want to turn some back on. Once you take a look at the list you'll understand why the chron page is so bad. With the scripts turned off, it loads in a flash. The only things I've had a problem with so far is slideshows and video, but those can be individually turned on if needed. Seems like most of the ad inserts (heb, kroger, lowes, etc) come in the mail now so I don't even bother with the print edition anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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