Almost all of the subscription refunds for the print version of Disclosure have been submitted to subscribers, far ahead of schedule from what we believed would happen. And apparently, this has been a good thing, according to the subscribers themselves.
Here's a portion of a letter we got from one, earlier this week:
Jack and Angela... I want to thank you for sending me a refund check ON MY HARD COPY DISCLOSURE PAPER. I prefer the hard copy version of the paper because it was just so much easier for me to read it and pass it along to friends.
And another:
Jack:
It has been a pleasure being a subscriber to your newspaper! You and Angela have done a fantastic job shining the light of truth onto the many darken corridors of power in Southern Illinois. Your publication will be missed, as I prefer the feel of good newsprint to that of an iPad. However, I will get online to view your website moving forward.
Because I conduct business in and around Harrisburg I can completely sympathize with your accurate criticism of the local Postal shortcomings. We too have had episodes where mailings to or from Harrisburg have taken over 6 weeks to appear.
Good luck to you on your future endeavors.
We've had several other well-wishers that we've had ongoing conversations with via email that we won't publish because some of it contains sensitive information, but by and large, few have been combative (we've had some snide comments, until we send them the links to the articles we've produced about the situation, which you can read about here and here), most of those having to do with the e-Edition. So let us clarify: The current plan doesn't involve whole e-Editions like you're used to. We are going to be producing some pieces that will be behind the paywall. As things go along, there will be more and more of those, and fewer and fewer of pieces on the free side; it's our intention to bring you breaking items like wrecks, fires, suicides, shootings, etc,. for free, then the in-depth analysis follow up will go on the pay side. Your $5.99 a month, should you choose to keep it, will in the interim give you access to archives and, as we begin to move toward more pay-only articles, access to those. We have removed the option of $5.99 renewable month access, and have replaced it with a $4.99 week access which isn't renewable (and of course you can always get a Day Pass for $2.99). YOU have the option of stopping the $5.99 if you so choose to do that. However, for $5.99 a month, that's the least expensive access to the archives (six years' worth) as well as upcoming pay-only articles...so you might want to think about that before canceling.
So we're having more and more material available right now here on the site, as you've seen; far more pieces than what we were having when the print product was still alive. Stick around! You're going to like what we're doing, and you don't want to miss any of it.