Oct. 20--Forget the pedicures and Brazilian bikini waxes. The Chicago Sun-Times is selling a one-year subscription to its Sunday paper for $10 on Groupon.
That's a nearly 90 percent discount off the retail price and includes 52 weeks of Sunday home delivery, a "scrappy, no-nonsense" brand of journalism and a daily digital replica of the print version that "swaggers into email boxes" each morning.
The Groupon offer shows more than 510 subscriptions sold as of Monday afternoon, and a "limited time remaining" on the deal, which lists a $91 value. The cover price of a single copy of the Sunday Sun-Times is $1.75.
Wrapports, an investor group led by Michael Ferro, bought the Sun-Times and its portfolio of suburban newspapers for about $20 million in December 2011. Last year, the Sun-Times sold its suburban portfolio to the Tribune for $23.5 million and shifted its focus to a national online network aggregating content from other sources.
Earlier this month, Tim Knight resigned as CEO of Wrapports to become president of a newspaper ad sales and marketing group in Cleveland.
The Sun-Times is not the only Chicago-area paper to discount itself on Groupon. The suburban Daily Herald has a 26-week deal for Sunday-only delivery for $15. The Chicago Tribune has no current Groupon offer but sold annual Sunday-only subscriptions for $20 earlier this year, according to the Chicago-based deals website.
The Sun-Times Groupon offer is valid for new subscribers, or those who have not received home delivery in the past 30 days. Users can "access all the features, photos, and content in the print version," as well as browse the paper online.
Those who need such an explanation of how a newspaper works are probably better off with a bikini wax.
rchannick@tribpub.com
