Business
It’s Couponers, Not Readers Buying Newspapers
June 2, 2011 
The DAILY PAPER published a sort of “good news, bad news” story today that is self serving and self deprecating. It’s about “extreme couponing.”
NEWSPAPERS--More than a recyclable
Seems folks are stealing the STATESMAN–not for news, obituaries, the crossword puzzle, great pictures, or a craving to be informed. Nope. They raid the newsstands to get coupons. Thanks to the TV shows about getting something for nothing, COUPON has become a verb: to coupon, couponing, couponers, couponed.
We can hear newspaper detractors saying, “You just sensationalize everything by putting half off coupons on the front page to sell papers!”
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Comments & Discussion
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© 2011 Boise Guardian. 
Jun 2, 2011, 9:32 am
For the past 11 years when I bother to watch television it is with the mind “what are they selling us now”. Way back when people were aware of the need for zero population growth we suddenly had movies such as “Three Men and a Baby”, etc. Why? Ask Johnson & Johnson, Mattel Toys, etc.
It appears that we are a population of sheep waiting to be lead around by the puppet masters using the media.
This has troubled me for some time.
Obviously it works.
Jun 2, 2011, 11:46 am
A good deal is a good deal only as long as you need the item. Coupons give the impression of a good deal…not if the item sits on a shelf and takes up space for months on end.
You haven’t saved anything if the item is not used within a reasonable period of time.
Jun 2, 2011, 12:58 pm
The new couponing does not happen in the papers anymore but on the internet. Groupon and Living Social came first. Google just opened in Portland. And Amazon nationally debuted theirs in Boise today.
Jun 2, 2011, 7:20 pm
I read the online edition of the Statesman but I still like the actual paper version, they do have some differences. My wife is a long time coupon user, since long before the current fad, and the coupon savings actually do save us more than the subscription price. Using coupons, shopping the ads and in store specials we consistently save more than buying in bulk at Costco does.
Jun 7, 2011, 2:02 pm
This does explain Tim’s retirement and those of other high quality reporters.