First, from our Corrections/Clarifications desk: Last month the hardreading staff noted that Two-Daily Town had gone all digital. That, however, was not entirely true: We still get the print edition of the Boston Sunday Globe, so we’re sort of a hybrid Globe subscriber.
It was in that capacity that we received this email yesterday from the stately local broadsheet.
We are writing to inform you that we will be updating our Terms of Purchase. These updates apply to anyone who purchases a subscription to BostonGlobe.com or The Boston Globe. These changes will become effective August 1, 2019.
Please review the changes, as well as our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Service.
If you have any questions about these changes, please call our customer service team at 1-888-MY-GLOBE (1-888-694-5623).
Sincerely,
The Boston Globe Team
So we checked out the Terms of Purchase (Effective August 01, 2019) and here’s what we found in section 1.2:
Only one person may use each account (user name and password) associated with a purchased digital subscription. A subscription which includes both a print subscription and a digital subscription may include multiple digital subscription accounts (user names), each of which may be used by one person.
Just so we’re clear: With a print subscription, multiple users can access the Globe’s digital content (BostonGlobe.com, the Boston Globe ePaper, and the Boston Globe mobile app) for one price. Without a print subscription, only one person gets access to that digital content; anyone else needs to pay for his or her own digital subscription.
Then, here’s what we found in section 2.1:
WE MAY CONTINUE YOUR PRINT SUBSCRIPTION ON A DIGITAL-ONLY SUBSCRIPTION BASIS IN THE EVENT THAT THE PRINT EDITION OF THE BOSTON GLOBE NEWSPAPER IS NOT PRINTED FOR ANY REASON AND FOR ANY LENGTH OF TIME, EITHER TEMPORARY OR PERMANENT.
Wait, what?
No Boston Globe print edition – for any reason or any length of time – either temporary or permanent – means all bets are off? Whoa.
Let’s play this out.
Say the Globe decides not to publish a print edition on Monday September 2nd, Labor Day. That means every household that shares a digital subscription – such as the hardreading staff’s happy home – would then have to purchase individual digital subscriptions for each household member – whether the Globe then publishes a print edition on September 3rd or not.
More likely: the Globe is considering cutting back – or eliminating – its print edition.
Or maybe this is just a scam – sorry, scheme – to goose digital subscriptions, which now equal print subscriptions but still fall far short of what Globe officials say the paper needs to remain financially viable.
Either way – caveat subscriber.
It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town 
These terms are unfair and egregious. The Globe seems to have lost the perspective that we are their customers not their servants. Who do they think they are?! These terms are unacceptable to me so I called and canceled my home delivery today after 25 consecutive years.
WE MAY CONTINUE YOUR PRINT SUBSCRIPTION ON A DIGITAL-ONLY SUBSCRIPTION BASIS IN THE EVENT THAT THE PRINT EDITION OF THE BOSTON GLOBE NEWSPAPER IS NOT PRINTED FOR ANY REASON AND FOR ANY LENGTH OF TIME, EITHER TEMPORARY OR PERMANENT.
OK so if for any reason my paper does not get delivered to my house on any day I am no longer entitled to a credit. Unacceptable.
I’m totally with you, Joe – although the redoubtable (and our good friend) Dan Kennedy of Media Nation says it’s all boilerplate that appears on numerous newspaper websites.
Even so, it must be there for a reason, of which we are highly suspicious. Given that the new regime – which includes a single-access-per-subscription restriction – kicks in next month, we’ll soon see whether it’s benign or not.