There is no Jewish organization in Los Angeles that offers what the Jewish Journal offers. Indeed we are the only Jewish nonprofit in town that enters thousands of Jewish homes every week—with a paper! — to keep our community informed, connected, and inspired.
Maybe that’s why it’s so popular– because people can’t find this weekly kaleidoscope of Jewish delights anywhere else.
People are so attached to the Journal that over the years I’ve heard this over and over again: “How can I get home delivery? I’m tired of schlepping every week to try to find one.”
Well, beginning next week, I’m happy to announce that you’ll be able to get home delivery of your favorite paper.
I can’t tell you how liberating this feels.
Not just because it costs a mini fortune to produce, print and distribute this award-winning paper week after week, and charging for home delivery will help defray our costs. That’s just part of it.
The key reason it feels liberating is because so many people have already told it’s only fair that they pay for it. If we pay for bagels that we love, why not pay for a paper that we love?
Money has a complicated psychology. On the one hand, everybody loves a good deal, and if something you love is free, how can you get a better deal than that?
On the other hand, people value what they pay for, but they value less what they don’t pay for.
The Journal is in this unique place where people appreciate its high value even though they don’t pay for it. So, one way of looking at this new home delivery model is that our price will finally match our worth.
Why do people value the paper so much? Of course I’m biased, but a key reason, I believe, is that we bring you the whole Jewish experience in one convenient, user-friendly package.
Our diversity is endless. Not only do we cover the diversity of organizations in this great community and the diversity of LA Jewry itself, most importantly, we also cover the diversity of the extraordinary Jewish buffet, such as:
Our thought-provoking essays on a wide range of urgent and relevant issues, our Torah coverage through Table for Five, Sephardic Torah and A Bisl Torah, Rabbis of LA, our food coverage (Sephardic and Ashkenazi), Jewish contributions to humanity, the Rebbe’s column, our book reviews, our Hollywood coverage, our community stories and profiles, our new puzzle page, our incredible Israel coverage, our weekly poem, and on and on.
Jewish organizations tend to specialize in certain items of the Jewish menu. We specialize in all of it.
But you can’t feel that diversity and communal feeling on a digital screen. You can only feel it when you hold the Journal in your hands and leisurely go through its pages.
We all assumed that paper would go out of style because of our growing addiction to digital. It turns out it’s the opposite. As reading has become more rushed and frazzled, people now value the serenity of paper more than ever. That’s because they appreciate the value of slowing down and savoring stories that only paper can provide.
Paper, in other words, is the Shabbat of reading.
In our community, you can only find that rich and satisfying experience with the Jewish Journal. One reader tells me the same thing every time we bump into each other: “There’s so much stuff it takes me the whole week to get through it.”
I’ve heard many other comments over the years, such as: “Why do you give it away for free? I feel like a schnorrer when I pick it up.”
If that reader feels like a schnorrer, does that make us the freiers’ club?
Humor aside, we believe in this endlessly fascinating and generous community, and we believe it will step up to support its weekly heartbeat.
Details next week.
