On newspapers

We recently canceled our newspaper subscription.  It was a mutual decision between my husband and I, and at the time we felt certain we were doing the right thing.  As of late it seemed that neither one of us had the time or energy at the end of the day to leaf through the stories, which meant that my recycling bin was filling up with newspapers that often never even got unrolled.  I found that I was going online to get my news from a variety of different sources which seemed to suit me better seeing as how I spent most of my day in front of the computer.  But perhaps our biggest reason for not renewing our subscription was that we were less than satisfied with the content of the newspaper.  It’s not that we weren’t getting the skinny on local happenings; we just felt we were missing out on everything that was happening in, well, the rest of the world.  And yes, I know that most all newspapers around the country are in dire straits at the moment so I have been trying to set realistic expectations for our small little paper that serves two communities.

And so.  We are going on week two of no newspaper and I think I’m ready to throw in the towel. 

You know how when you have something you’re more inclined to complain about it, but once it’s gone you can’t help but feel withdrawals and realize it wasn’t as bad as you thought?  That’s kind of what I’m going through right now.

The newspaper used to be a staple in the lives of almost all Americans.  You would read the newspaper in the morning as you sat eating breakfast, or at night when you got home from work.  It was your source for televised sporting events, movie listings, and job advertisements.  The newspaper was kind of a catch-all for American society.  And now?

We have the beast known as the Internet.  More and more people are going online for news because they are already online for entertainment purposes, so it’s like two birds with one stone.  Plus you can access so much more online.  The New York Times, The Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly (admit it, we’re not solely checking out legitimate news sites).  This is not a new trend, it’s been in the works for quite some time and if you are involved in any way with the newspaper business you know that for a lot of papers it’s do or die time. 

But I digress.  No more than five minutes after I got off the phone with someone at the paper telling them that, sadly, I wouldn’t be renewing my subscription at this time, I wanted to call them right back and say that I made a terrible mistake.  I didn’t mean what I said, of course I still want to get the paper!  What was I thinking?  They must have been talking to someone impersonating me. 

Because the truth is boys and girls, even with all my level-headed reasoning for deciding not to renew, I miss my newspaper.  I miss having it sitting there on my coffee table, the front headline emblazoned across the page, just waiting for me to pick it up and start reading.  I like being able to hold the newspaper in my hand, to see the words on the page, with no pop ups or extra links to click in order to get to the story.  On the days when I did find time to read the paper, I found the process of skimming the stories to be relaxing.  I even enjoyed the sound of the pages as I would turn them. 

Okay, enough with the sentimental garbage.  Maybe I’m going through some kind of twisted guilt thing since I used to write for my college newspaper and feel that my recent lack of newspaper support is somehow a mortal strike against my character, or maybe I’m just too old fashioned to be satisfied with online news.  I’m a purist at heart.  And even with the flaws, I’ve decided that I simply cannot live without the daily thump on my door alerting me that my newspaper has arrived.  (Actually, in all honesty, I could do without the thump because they deliver our paper at like, 5 a.m., and sometimes that thump is so loud I wake up in a panic thinking something or someone is trying to get into my house, and by the time I realize it’s just the paper I’m too wired to fall back asleep, so….yea.  A little less thumping would be appreciated).

What about you?  Do you think Americans are giving up on the daily newspaper or will print journalism continue to survive in the coming years and decades?