Last week as I was out walking Poppy The Brave, I had the sudden realization that I had not seen a newspaper in a driveway for months.
To be fair, I do not always walk as early as I might (although the heat here does encourage early morning walks) and may be missing some early morning papers. But I go early enough that, as I more or less cover a square mile or so on the roads, I would anticipate that I would see something.
Of course once you notice (or do not notice) something, you look for it more. So I have been looking much harder to see if I find one. To date, nothing yet.
I had known the newspaper industry was in a bit of a bind - but have things really fallen that far that fast?
Even two years ago - at the start of The Plague - I truly believe that I was still seeing papers in people's driveways. When I was out early enough, the paper car - it always seemed to be people in their mid-thirties at that point - would wheel around the corner and down the street at the slow pace of a bicycle and heave the papers with unerring accuracy (as paper deliverers ever have) and then speed up to the next house. No more of that either: just a steady stream of cars headed out to work and school parts unknown.
Three years ago I had written of the rise and fall of my hometown paper; even after that article my parents continued to get it for another year or so. I wonder if what was being seen at the fringes has finally moved into the larger leagues.
I cannot think of the last time I picked up a newspaper for actual news (outside of my parents' house); I am 95% Interweb oriented and a very small 5% radio oriented. Newspaper only has value to me now as a lining for the rabbit cage (literally). And on the whole, I am sure there is a great deal less newspaper to recycle (although those bags were useful for scooping animal droppings).
Just another sign of the death of the old world, I suppose. I fully anticipate by my death that the idea of a "newspaper" will be as quaint as a fax machine or VCR.
Timely theme since my local newspaper raised the amount for the period of subscription, yesterday was the last day I had paid for. Was getting digital access all seven days along with a delivery twice a week. Always did like the feel of the paper in the hand, just not the same looking at screen.
ReplyDeleteNylon12, I feel the same way about books. Reading on a screen is just not the same.
DeleteMy hometown paper went from two days a week when I was growing up to three, then five, then six, and is now back down to two. My parents ended up sharing a subscription with my Aunt and Uncle - there was just not enough there to merit a subscription.
Our newspaper, still has the option to be delivered but I am one of the masses and just get the digital version. A large part of that is they only print an actual paper on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Sunday and Monday they don't print one digital or paper. Wednesday and Friday are digital only but the following day's print version is largely a rehash of the digital version. Really the only reason I continue to get it is for local news since it is my only source for such other than word of mouth.
ReplyDeleteOn a related note, I know many who still get newspapers delivered, albeit in their mailbox. They are the ones who subscribe to far away newspapers like the WSJ or NYT or our state daily rag from the urban jungle. They just read them a day late due to delivery times.
Ed, when I am home I do look at our local paper. It takes something like five minutes. As you say, it is good for local stuff (and if they were wise, they would triple down on that).
DeleteThat is a good point about papers from far away - I suppose I could do it as well, but even I am forced to admit so much is online now.
The fax was invented in the 1920's as I remember. I may be a bit confused about who was first, but I know the Germans had something called Hellschriber that was a data transmission for artillery units. It was the first fax. They used it in WW2. I used it when I was ham radio-ing back in 1997-2010. Pretty nifty little setup.
ReplyDeleteAnd you STILL need a fax machine if you are dealing with doctor's offices. They won't email stuff due to potential HIPPA violations. Nowadays, they use fax servers instead of actual machines, and it's a crap shoot whether they will get the fax, or send the fax. It requires constant followup. I fought that all last fall, and over torqued an office manager. She didn't know the meaning of followup or fax server.
STxAR, fascinating trivia! I had no idea.
DeleteYes, Faxes are still the purview of medical offices, and they may be the only thing keeping the market up now. Although somewhat ironically, even the people that get them mostly get them on a computer anymore.
Yup. Many only print a couple days a week, and the subscription cost has not changed.
ReplyDeleteSome do mail. Some are subscription to digital or have stopped completely.
I can't imagine the cost of newspulp now.
Makes a person feel old.
You all be safe and God bless.
I cannot imagine the price either Linda. It is probably reflected in the subscription rate, which is not cheap. Many magazines have gone digital, probably for the same reason.
DeleteI cancelled my paper when it became overtly Left-Wing. It praised illegal immigration to the point that it might as well have been printed in Spanish. I'd had enough, so I cut the cord, ushering in a six month period of multiple daily harassment sales calls from the paper. No more hardcopy for me...
ReplyDeletePete, no matter what the paper or its preferences, I prefer my reporting on the reporting pages and opinions on the editorial pages. When the two get crossed, it usually makes for bad opinions, bad news reporting, and a reason to move on.
DeleteI miss real newspapers. It was nearly twenty years ago that I dumped the subscription, and the final straw was not the badly skewed politics, but the utter failure to cover local news, something that even the internet still does very poorly. We were taking a country drive, and thirty miles or so up the highway was a portable highway readerboard saying "Hwy 138 closed due to forest fire". The fire had been burning for several days, and two days later, the paper mentioned the fire on page 7 or so.
ReplyDeleteWe now live in a small, isolated, rural town with a newspaper that is a weekly, delivered on Wednesdays. They work hard to cover everything local to us, and for that I subscribe to support the effort.
That's another reason I quit the local rag. "Local news" was only "local" if you lived in the city over 60 miles away from us.
DeleteGreg and Pete, completely agree that one reason local papers foundered was that they covered any number of issues that were not local. By the figured that out, it was too late for many of them.
DeleteAround here newspapers are delivered into little boxes out by the mailbox. That said, we stopped our subscription some months ago and I don't miss it one bit. Okay... that's not completely true. I do miss being able to grab a paper out of the recycling bag when I need to drain fat from bacon or hamburgers. I always used a section of the newspaper on a plate for soaking up the the greater amount of grease, covered with a paper towel for cleanliness. I used it the same way for putting hot cookies on, too - when I made cookies. I don't dare make them anymore, as I would eat them. all.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I leave more comments than have appeared here recently, TB. Seems like when I leave more than one comment a day, they don't all get posted. Or maybe I'm just mis-remembering - only thinking I've left a comment. Just mentioning it in case I have any floating around behind the scenes.
Becki, that is the major thing I miss as well - having newsprint available (in our case, for lining rabbit cages). The papers themselves, not so much - unless it for the local news.
DeleteThank you for letting me know about the comments. One thing that I have found on sites (including my own) is I hit publish and move and do not see that it has "failed to publish" - and then am confused as well. I will definitely keep an eye out, but it seems the "joys" of the Blogger reset continue.
I gave up newspaper delivery earlier this year due to an increasingly inferior product with an increasing price. I get it -- they're a business and I wanted to support their efforts. But my big city rag is part of the larger USA Today rag, and they seem to want us to all go digital, so I don't feel bad about it. I have full digital access and I still read faithfully. Ironically, I am a columnist for a small suburban online publication and when I wrote about giving up the delivery of the big city paper, I received many comments lamenting the passage of what newspapers used to be.
ReplyDeleteBob, I remember that you are a columnist. T hat must have made for an interesting column.
DeleteI think there is a hard press to go completely digital. I get most of my news digitally, but if the product is not up to standard, I would no more pay for it than for any other inferior product.
Sadly, papers had a chance to remake themselves earlier in this century and instead of becoming more uniquely themselves, they tried to compete with the 24/7 news cycle. That was never going to be successful.