The News & Observer is raising its subscription rates, so says a letter attached to the newspaper that was tossed outside my front door Tuesday.

The increases aren’t much, but they come as the newspaper prepares to possibly lay off 10 percent of its newsroom staff.

A 4-week, home delivery subscription now costs $14.08, up from $12.70. If I’ve done my math right, that comes to an additional $17.94 a year.

The letter says the increases are necessary “in order to continue to provide our customers the highest level of service and to offset significant increases in newsprint, fuel and distribution expenses.”

Rising costs in gas and newsprint and declining ad revenue were cited as reasons why the N&O offered buyouts to about 200 workers this spring. Only six newsroom staffers were reported as accepting the buyouts.

With possible layoffs looming, I take issue that the letter notifying me of the rate increases saying the increases are necessary “to continue to provide our customers the highest level of service.”

Is that really true? I don’t doubt that the reporting, writing and photography continues to be top-notch … but how long will the news staff continue to keep that up with less staff?

Further, I’ve heard that the N&O, like many newspapers, is reducing the number of pages it prints. I don’t know/have specific stats on how many fewer pages there are (or will be) and what sections of the paper they’re coming from (obviously quality is less likely to suffer if the page cuts are coming from say classifieds or comics versus news or sports).

The small increase in subscription rates will not lead me to cancel my subscription to the N&O. It makes sense with the rising gas and newsprint rates. I just wish the circulation guy who wrote the letter would have chosen his words a little more carefully in explaining to me why more money will be deducted from my bank account next month.

It’s sad that the N&O even has to resort to layoffs to cope with McClatchy’s budget problems. But who knows what will happen with the layoffs, some were predicting they would happen Monday, but I haven’t heard of the ax falling yet.

I’m sure a lot of my Internet friends can’t even fathom subscribing to the print edition of the newspaper. Do you think $14.08 every four weeks is worth having the news delivered to your door every morning? How do you think newsroom layoffs might affect the quality of the N&O?