I never watch news channels or evening news programs. Since I could read, I enjoyed reading newspapers. Although seriously lacking in substance, I still enjoy reading a morning newspaper with my breakfast. I enjoy holding the paper, hearing the crinkle and being able to rip out articles, circle ads, and even separate circulars from it before bringing it into the house. I will continue to subscribe and receive newspapers at my house as long as they are available.
When the web first started up, en masse, about 15 years ago, The New York Times, LA Times, and Wall Street Journal all came out as pay only web sites. Newspapers all around the country hoped they would succeed so they could follow suit. They held on as long as possible, but finally succumbed and offered their information for free. Now, newspapers are again looking at a pay for play option.
Since I don’t enjoy reading newspaper content on a computer screen, for the most part, I won’t be an earlier adopter. Do you still read newspapers? Would you or have you subscribed to online newspapers? Read an article on the subject by clicking the link below.
NewsFactor Network | Want To Read All About It Online? It May Cost You.
God bless you and every paid subscriber on the planet!
I don’t know why the newspaper industry botched this, but we’re among the few for-profit businesses on the planet that gives away what we produce for free to anybody with a web browser. I think journalism on the web will continue to be a larger and larger part of our market share, but if true journalism is to survive, we’ve got to find a way to get that genie back in the bottle.
You are welcome. If digital ink (like the Kindle) ever catches on and gets in a lot of hands, I think that newspapers/magazines will thrive again. Until then, keep the presses rolling!
I’m in the same boat as you: a lifelong paper newspaper reader. I do prefer reading online, but only when i’m in a hurry and want to search.
I don’t subscribe now, but I steal a paper whenever I can from my in-laws every chance I can. Plus I pick restaurants. For lunch based on free papers (and wifi) just to get newsprint all over my hands.
Great to hear there other fans of newspaper. I think a thin and slightly larger Kindle would be a cool follow-up to print media in the near future.
In the “olden days” I depended on the news from a “news” paper.
The “former” newspapers are now “opinion” papers, so I don’t feel deprived living in an area where there is no daily delivery. Parachute is the “Dogpatch” of Colorado – the Denver Post and Glenwood Post Independent both stopped service this year….so I get the GJ Sentinel 3 days – Wed, Fri, and Sun at a bargain rate.
I DO get my news – local, national and world – daily, on my “customized” iGoogle Home Page.
I use my iGoogle every day as well….but do remember that much of the news we get in iGoogle comes from the news makers at TV networks, news agencies, and newspapers. I will miss newspapers, but once you taste the Internet, it becomes evident how inferior a newspaper can be for information gathering. It’s fun and enlightening (and sometimes overwhelming) to get unlimited information sources.
Before there was radio, newspapers had a near monopoly for advertising dollars (OK, billboards competed). Newspapers were lucrative. Newspapers could have been, and often were given away for free, because advertising was the true revenue source.
Then came radio, TV, Cable, Satellite, and Internet. There is no “putting the genie back in the bottle.” It is all about competition for consumers’ attention by advertisers, who right now are desperately searching for economical ways to promote their products. Their difficulty is that information delivery channels are becoming more and more fragmented.
Newspapers are an environmental disaster. They always have been, but before there were no better alternatives. Newpaper publishers were arrogant, elitist, blind and deaf to competition, and now they are paying the price. Newpapers as we currently know them are the buggy whips of the 21st century.
PS: Thank you, Rick, for getting rid of those code words for submission.
Wow, how do you really feel about Rupert?? So, I can assume that you don’t subscribe to any of them right? And you are welcome about getting rid of the captcha for comments.
I too enjoy “newsprint” on my hands, and miss it very much when reading online, but not for the dirty hands, but for the full experience of being able to see the whole paper, ads and all. I love to read the Free Press online because I can see it as it is printed, not just article by article. I would pay to read the Daily Sentinel online IF they did it like the Free Press.
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