This story at TheMediaBriefing.com provides an interesting take on the price-sensitivity of newspaper subscriptions:

As analysts such as Simon-Kucher & Partners have argued, pricing is a newspaper's most powerful economic lever. Newspapers are raising prices to protect circulation revenue, when in fact they should be using price hikes to grow it.

Granted, these numbers apply to British print publications and might not be applicable in the U.S. or to online subscriptions. Neither does it address the prevailing sentiment -- in America, at least -- that general-circulation newspapers should be affordable for the masses.

Nonetheless, it could indicate a way forward for devotees of print news.