When we used to read "the paper"

[SoCalDem]

The thing that newspapers forget, is that people's LIVES have changed dramatically in the last few decades, and the newspaper's claim to fame is that it has NOT changed ...in hundreds of years.

It's still just ink on paper, even if they did switch to soy ink and recycled newsprint.

The volume of "stuff happening" did not decrease, nor did the number of businesses available to mine for ads.

OUR LIVES CHANGED.

Dads don't work 9-5 locally. people no longer sit down to the breakfast table, to eat a nice breakfast, lovingly prepared by Mom...kids working on current events reports taken from news clippings, cut from sections they wrested away from Dad.. Mom does not sit down with the paper & a cup of coffee, after the kids leave for school & Dad's gone off to work.

These days, EVERYONE'S out of the house early..often before daylight..kids schlepped off to sitters still in nightgowns sometimes, or dropped off at school, or sometimes left behind at home to wait until it's late enough to even GO to school. Mom's headed one way, Dad another, not to return home until dark comes again..after they have rounded up the kids from after-school care..

The "news" they get, is likely to come from pod-casts, or the car radio....and again while they try to inhale dinner in time to hit the hay and start all over again the next day..

They may still go and buy a Sunday paper, but the daily paper is not something that most people even bother with these days...Many people don't even care "what's on sale" in their towns, since they may shop near their jobs...often miles from home.

Local stores in many communities are all but gone, so they don't need to advertise locally. The big-box stores do not do their own ads, and many of those ads are delivered in the mailbox these days..not in the paper. When Joe's Camera Shop closed down, and we all went to Walmart's electronics section, and when Millies Dress Shop went bust, we went to Target.. Joe & Millie probably faithfully advertised, but no longer. People now use online venues to sell or give away their extra stuff. They call or go online to see what's at the theatre.. they check the website to see what the school lunch menu is.. They don't have to wait for the paper.


The physical newspaper facilities changed with the times, or so they thought. Their dilemma was the same as the "family-farmer" though. The new equipment was pricey, and they borrowed to buy it, so they could be "up-to-date". When they found themselves so deep in debt, that they had to trim the organization, their last option was usually to sell out, in order to stay alive. Once they did that, they usually lost the one thing they had going for them.. the "local" part of it all.

As the conglomerates vacuumed up all the smaller papers, they may have had bragging rights for being the biggest, but like Clear Channel & radio, and agri-business & farms, they could only "make money", if they stripped to the bone, the companies they took over.

In days past, the local people who worked at the papers were our neighbors, family & friends. They reported on what was happening in all our towns. They were not celebu-porters, or media stars. They were just people like us, making middle class wages, out there writing stuff down, and asking questions..then high-tailing it back to the paper to write it all up for us.

Even smallish places had more than one paper, and some (like my hometown) had a morning AND an evening edition..and had them for decades, and apparently stayed solvent..but that was then..and this is now.

Reporters used to be asked/urged/required to follow the who/what/where/when school of thought, and leave the opinion to the editorial page. Maybe we all understood nuance back then, but it was quite glaring when an article was written with a "slant". Letters to the editor would appear, to criticize the paper whenever that happened......Now people complain about almost anything, and they do it from all sides, because each faction seems to "take offense" at everything .

It's no wonder why so many newspapers have taken to "reporting" on frivolity..but they forget that the same people who love the fluff, are often the ones who read a paper the LEAST, and now there are better venues around to get that coverage

The act of even reading a paper takes space and time, and we seem to have very little of either these days. The image of a person reading a paper, is one of a comfy chair, a cup of coffee & a relaxed person perusing the events of the day..at leisure.. No one has leisure anymore.. We have to get while the getting's good, and that usually means "clicking a link" here and there, getting pissed off at what we just read, and then maybe a kitty video or checking email.

We just changed..and papers didn't.

[Bonhomme Richard]

1. fter many years reading papers online I actually now subscribe.....

to the local papers.

A couple of things I found:
Reading online I don't really get into the depth of the paper and pretty much stuck to the headlines which meant that I missed a lot of interesting reading.

I actually do enjoy sitting down with a cup of tea and read the paper. There is something about holding that paper in your hands that I find relaxing. It actually slows me down which is a good thing as I am a fairly hyper guy.

LOL, I no longer feel any guilt for reading other peoples work for free. (must be that old catholic guilt gene rearing it's ugly head)

I do still read all the main papers online and I find DU a great source for info from papers I never would have read.

[Captain Hilts]

2. AGREE! Reading papers online is NOT the same. You don't learn as much or as widely...

reading online is too self-selecting in what you read.

For example, I was in a coffee shop this morning and picked up a copy of the Washington Times that was lying around. I found a terrific review of Republicans' views toward Atlas Shrugged.

[nancyr]

3. An excellent piece.

You've hit the nail squarely on the head.

[SoCalDem]

4. We haven't taken the paper for years, and used to read it all the time.

Our oldest had a paper route, and now papers here are delivered by guys in a pick up truck, who fling it as the cruise down the street... we quit because ours kept getting stolen, and the only way to report it was via robo-call..and the Sunday paper delivered to you Monday afternoon, just did not cut it with my husband..:)