The Death of the Newspaper
I put up a short post last October detailing how I start my morning...with blogs and news feeds, not the traditional morning newspaper. Although I only got a handful of comments on the post, a lot of people mentioned this one to me and thought I was crazy. "The newspaper will NEVER go away" they said (or something close to that).
Well, maybe I'm not so crazy. At least the publisher of the New York Times agrees with me. :P
So waddya think? Is the newspaper soon to be produced only to line the gerbil cage? Other than ink on your hands, what do you get from a newspaper that you cannot get electronically?
I love reading the newspaper. I don’t read news very well on the computer- just skim it, usually first and last paragraph.
We recently began taking- and then we cancelled- the newspaper and found that it is a waste of everything for us. We basically get all of our info electronically- it is quick- easy to get and so much less paper product around our apartment. The other thing that I enjoy about news online is that if you want to refer back to a story it is usually fairly easy to find it.
I don’t like to touch newspaper. It has a yucky feel and leaves residue on your fingers.
All I need is Drudge.
ps… the new layout startled me!!
I like the paper. Not all the time but it just has a nice feel to it sometimes. This is not apples to apples but, I do not think print versions of the Bible will ever go away either. Sometimes just having it in front of you is nice. No email,im or other stuff to get in the way.
Hey Matt, here’s some food for thought:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKWK3xfvs-k&eurl=
Sorry, doing crosswords on the computer just isn’t the same as in the paper….
I have never really enjoyed the traditional news paper therefore I never subscribed on a regular basis.
There is no doubt in my mind that electronic publications will dominate and the ones who try to stick with print will disappear in our lifetime.
Crossword puzzles are fun but I don’t think that alone will produce the advertising dollars necessary to maintain a paper.
I have to say I agree with Debbie. I love doing the crosswords. I hate the rest of it though.
We stopped our subscription to the Oregonian when we realized it wasn’t even getting out of the wrapping–just going straight from the driveway to the recycle bin.
In addition, we get most of our news online or TV. In fact, the only thing we really missed from the newspaper was the TV section, and even that you can find online now.
A couple weeks ago, the Oregonian started showing up in our driveway again. I asked David if he’d renewed our subscription, and he said no, they’re probably trying to up their circulation and are giving it free to people, in the hopes they’ll like it and want to order it.
Sure enough, the other day, a young man came to our door from the Oregonian, asking us how we we liked getting the paper. I told him I’d wondered why we were receiving it, and he confirmed David’s theory of wanting to up their numbers. He then told me for only $13.95 we could continue getting the paper until next month.
I told him no thanks, and then he tried to throw in a $25 Fred Meyer gift card, in hopes that that would sway me. I still declined. Amazingly enough we’re still getting the paper every day…Oh well, I guess we can use it as mulch in the spring :)
Debbie and Mrs. Singley, I agree about the crossword. It’s just not the same online…
And Kristin…that was an awesome story! I would HATE to work in the sales and circulation department of the Oregonian (or any other newspaper) right now. I bet those are some tense meetings…
what’s a “newspaper”?
Being a “Seasoned” newspaper reader I am faithful each day to read it from cover to cover. It is the way I like to start my morning off and see what is going on in the world. I am obviously NOT into the computer age as all of you young folks seem to be. Sorry, I vote for the paper in good old fashioned black ink on recycled paper.
We stopped taking the paper when the front page showed color photos of a massacre at a school–somewhere in Russia, I believe. That’s the last thing I want my young kids to see as they head off to school! That, and other headlines and photos that are inappropriate for kids, have lost them my business.
Not too surprisingly, it appears that the people that read this blog seem to, for the most part, not read the newspaper a lot. I wonder if an article went into a newspaper about reading blogs and somehow people could respond (letters to the editor? smoke signals? telegraph?)…what would they say? Probably something like, “blogs are terrible, I will always read the newspaper!” Haha…know your audience, right?
I’ve read the newspaper every day for probably the last 25 years. I love it. As much as I also love computers, it’s just not the same thing. The newspaper roles all 24 hours up into one publication. I really don’t want to have to look at the web all day to see what’s changed in the story (or not changed). I like having a 24 hour synopsis. I also like to be able to skim and read and look at pictures at different levels of the stories based on my interest. Hard to do on the web. My perfect web newspaper would be to line up the stories top to bottom with a headline, picture and opening detailed caption. Then I could scroll from top to bottom without having to click a million times. Then if I wanted to read the story, I could click in to read the rest. There’s too much clicking required and too many places to visit on the web to pragmatically get all the news I want. Plus, I like the local, state, national and world. The paper does it pretty good. It’s also portable and doesn’t require batteries or a connection of any kind.
It’s not there yet, but there’s a lot of potential.
I know that nobody else is reading comments now, but I assume you still are Matt.
Nothing beats a physical newspaper for those places / times where being online isn’t appropriate. For example:
> Commuting, whether it’s on a bus, Max or airplane.
> Breakfast. I think running the Noise Box (TV) during a meal is babaric, and you get no control over what information they feed you and in what depth.
> Using my laptop during a meal seems pretty pathetic too, and too easy to splash things into the keyboard, etc.
There is nothing better than eating breakfast over the comics. The Oregonian has the best comics section of any paper I have yet to encounter, and the time it takes to read fits *perfectly* with the time it takes to eat my cereal. It’s the perfect form factor, and my personal favorite. Worth it for me.
I agree with you Dave, thoe are all compelling. I also strongly agree that running the TV during a meal is completely uncalled for…we NEVER do that here.
Question: why is reading a paper during a meal better? Isn’t the point of getting everyone around a table for a meal (besides for food) to build relationships? isn’t putting a paper between you and your family kind of blocking them out?
Tangent to this tangent about newspapers/televisions/media blocking fellowship: a friend of mine watches a show on the cooking cable channel. This show visits food establishments around the country. My friend says that most of the time, the places are filled with customers visiting. Except when the show visited Portland – everyone was staring at their laptops and listening to their MP3s. I found this humorous.
I don’t have family, so I have many mealtime options.