I have the local Sunday paper delivered, which I read when at the laundromat Sunday mornings. I then pass it on to my neighbor across the street.
As I have the Sunday paper delivered, I get free digital access to the website.
I have the local Sunday paper delivered, which I read when at the laundromat Sunday mornings. I then pass it on to my neighbor across the street.
As I have the Sunday paper delivered, I get free digital access to the website.
My papers come in the mail these days. They quit having separate delivery people a year or two ago.
I do also read news online: generally mostly NPR, Washington Post, and a different local site than the hardcopy paper. I’ve got a discount subscription to WaPo.
It occurs to me that not only is it nice to read the hardcopy because there’s a definite end to it, and because it’s easier on my eyes, but also because I know nobody’s keeping track of who read which particular articles for how long.
I’m afraid our household, too, has been a contributor to the decline of print journalism-- we haven’t subscribed to a paper in years.
We still get a local paper put out by our Township that’s just delivered to us unbidden. It’s a nice source for very local news. I always check the crime log to see what sorts of local crimes are taking place in our community.
It’s also good to have some source of newsprint on hand. I’m not sure what I’d use to start my charcoal chimneys when I grill otherwise. Fireplace starters? I’m not joking, in a “haha, our local newspaper is only good for kindling” sense. What do we do when all sources of newsprint are totally gone-- what do we light our fires with? What do we spread out when carving pumpkins?
I hate paper newspapers, for two reasons.
The ink rubs off onto my skin. I read paper newspapers back in the day because there was no alternative, but the ink has always bothered me. As soon as I could get news online, I ditched paper with its crappy ink and never looked back.
By the time the paper reaches me, it’s yesterday’s news. For breaking news events, online articles have probably been updated half a dozen times since the paper article was written.
I can’t find a cite for this, but somebody (maybe Tony Blair?) took Rupert Murdoch to task for consistently publishing right-wing views in his papers.
“Who voted for you?” they asked.
“Every time someone buys one of my papers, that’s a vote for me” he replied.
I can see his point.
Now I haven’t bought a paper newspaper this millennium. But after the Brexit vote, I took out a subscription to the “New European”.
That’s my money, where my mouth is!
When Trump was elected, I asked myself, “what can I actually DO to help the situation?” And I decided that I could support real journalism. We already had subscription to the WSJ and our local daily. But I bought subscriptions to WaPo, The Guardian, and the NYT, and downloaded apps for Al Jazeera, Reuters, and NPR.
I’ve since gotten annoyed with NYT, and somehow dropped the Guardian, but I added a subscription to The Economist (I don’t like a lot of their politics, but they’ve done great covid reporting, and they are legit news) and added the AP new app and the app of my local NPR affiliate to my phone. We also give to NPR every year.
If something major happens in the world, my phone’s notification area looks like a Christmas tree. It’s been interesting to see how the different news sources pick different things. The one that’s most different from the others is Al Jazeera.
I subscribed to the Boston Globe after I graduated college in 2006. Back then you couldn’t quite read the paper on your phone, although it was getting close to that point. I had always taken the free copy of the Metro they handed out at the entrance to the T stations; it was a good digest of bite-sized stories from the AP news wire. But I loved having a real paper to read on longer rides, and to spread out on the table while I had my morning coffee. I didn’t love carrying a stack of those real papers down from my fourth-floor walk-up to the recycling bin, though. The 2008 recession cut my income significantly, and I had to cancel my subscription along with several other luxuries. I never got a physical paper again.
After law school (and having moved from Boston to LA), I got digital subscriptions to the LA Times, the New York Times and the Washington Post, more because I wanted to support journalism than because I had any illusions about being able to read three papers. I do read bits and pieces from each. There’s a lot to be said for the convenience of digital subscriptions. On the other hand, sometimes it’s too easy. When mom clipped a column from the paper and mailed it to you, it meant something. When she just forwards an article to the whole family with a few keystrokes, not so much.
My parents still get the LA Times delivered. Sometimes when I visit them I have a chance to sit quietly with it, getting newsprint all over my hands and elbows as I flip through, savoring the exquisite pleasure of a real paper. When they helped me move from my last apartment to my first house this year, they brought stacks of papers to use as packing materials, and we actually reused some of that paper for various purposes. Maybe one of these days I’ll get a physical paper again.
I read the Failing New York Times every day electronically. I also get the local paper delivered three days a week in paper.
I got the local paper up until I moved at the end of 2015. By then they’d already fired many of their local reporters and columnists and started printing the paper out of town, and since then they’ve moved even further in that direction.
It’s easy to find national news and opinion online, but I miss what the paper used to be as a source of state and local news.
I was a two-a-day reader in the 80s, but am down to the Sunday New York Times as our only paper newspaper. Given my eyesight, I can no longer read it without my glasses, so almost every week it goes into recycling without being read.
Another dead tree Chicago trip reader here. Wife and I just like the ritual of reading the paper with our breakfast/coffee.
Unfortunately, the Trip was sold and the quality is decreasing ad the price increasing. Really hard to justify that cost for such a crappy product. I like to support print journalism, but I fear I am simply supporting a hedge fund.
I suspect the main reason we keep getting it is because our dog sol enjoys running out and bringing it in every morning!
No, not at all. When I went into work, I used to read the local free paper with breakfast at my desk. But that is turning into a dim memory now that I work from home. It would take me an hour (from home and back) to get one.
I still have a paper subscription to the local birdcage liner — although I don’t have a bird — despite the creeping price increases, and probably will till they go all-digital (the proverbial writing is on the wall: they stopped the Saturday paper edition a couple of years ago, and keep reminding their subscribers that they can stop the other days without notice).
There’s just something about holding it in my (inkstained) hands that reading it on a screen can’t replicate. I should note that I feel the same way about books.
Sadly, our 7 day/week paper is down to Wednesdays and Saturdays and is delivered by mail. But I still subscribe. The newspaper is part of my daily routine. Because I only get 2 issues/week I spread out the reading, so I have something to read every morning with my breakfast. I also do the crossword puzzles.
I get the San Jose Mercury News delivered 7 days a week. Most days I can read the whole thing in 10 minutes. Sundays takes a little longer. I’ve subscribed to a paper newspaper continuously for almost 40 years.
I get it for two reasons, basically: First, it’s a way I ensure reading, at least the headline, of every important local news story. It’s surprisingly difficult to get a complete list of news articles from the website. Second, I cannot do the crossword puzzle electronically. I must do it with pencil on paper.
This is exactly what’s happened to my old hometown paper, the Green Bay Press-Gazette. They consolidated printing with another paper in Appleton (30 miles away) a few years ago, and thus, the paper is “put to bed” (content finalized) sometime around 6pm the night before – as a result, any news from the late afternoon or evening of the prior day (such as sports results) isn’t in the paper at all.
It’s clear that covering the Packers has helped to keep the paper afloat, but otherwise, a lot of the paper’s content is now coming from other sister papers (like the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel), and the “national” news is coming from USA Today.
It’s all left the print paper feeling very thin and sad, and not timely in the least.
I get the New York Times daily, which in California costs an arm and a leg but is worth it. I almost consider it charity, especially for the investigative reporting. I get the Mercury News on Sunday since it is very cheap and is worth it for the features. But half the articles come from the Times anyhow. Not the same paper as when Knight Ridder owned them.
Why? Now we’re retired we can read the Times before we get dressed every morning. I have too much screen time as it is, and real paper is relaxing. And I read a lot of articles I wouldn’t bother with using an online version.
Plus the Crosswords.
I get a national paper and the Sunday Times, both of which give digital access. I look at some other papers digitally and intermittently. Our municipality recycles newsprint, but it does add up.
I have a subscription to the paper Guardian, Mon-Sat. Fortunately there’s a paper shop just over the road that will take their sub coupons (of the other nearest shops, one won’t take the coupons and the other only has the Murdoch papers, boo hiss).
And when I go for my weekly “big shop” I stop off for the local freebie papers over coffee: one has some real local news, while the other is basically puff pieces for shops and services in the shopping centre but the estate agents adverts keep me abreast of local property values. Either way, they barely take up the time to let my coffee cool down
I still have a subscription to the Dallas Morning News (Sundays), but since it comes with full online access to the same exact articles that are printed, I rarely actually read the actual printed paper, and just use it for the coupons and circulars on Sundays.
But in the sense of “Do I read a local newspaper?”, I absolutely do, every day. Just online, not on paper.