The other day there was a piece on a local TV news station that reported on a number of newspapers who are being forced to reduce their content. Along with that, Andy Rooney spoke on 60 Minutes Sunday night of the decline of the daily newspaper. It seems advertising revenue and readership are down significantly. People (especially young people) these days are getting their news from TV and the internet. Even news magazines like Time and Newsweek have raised their subscription rates and taken a stronger position on their websites. Andy Rooney went on to lament this trend and I couldn't agree more. I really enjoy my daily newspaper and it's not even an especially good one. But I like taking the time to look at all the parts of it-international, national, local news, the classifieds, obituaries, police reports, the comics and advice sections-all of it. You can't get that stuff from TV or the internet. The paper I'd really like to get daily is The New York Times but it's expensive and delivery in my area is unreliable so I settle for two local papers-one daily and the other weekly. I think this trend away from printed matter is a shame. I've already written about that little gadget Amazon.com calls the Kindle. It's designed to replace books. This is another sad trend in my view. Maybe at some point in the future people will tire of staring at screens and using gadgets and return to the traditional ways of being entertained and getting information. One encouraging thing is the amount of reading of printed matter being done in schools. Let's hope this carries over to adulthood.
3 comments:
I subscribe to the Fri-Sat-Sun NY Times because I wanted to support the liberal-media-elite AND get some in depth news. The same guy who delivers my CT Post delivers the NYT. He is very prompt and delivers very early in the morning, regardless of the weather. I also get the News-Times delivered for local news. Yeah, it's overkill BUT I want to support newspapers. You cannot curl up with a computer ... and do the daily Jumble!
We had a paper frenzy going on at our house, having both the right and left wing papers delivered, so my husband could feel that he was somewhat centered!
Crazy, but then it got to be way too much. Now, though, we're going to get back to the NY Times, my favorite paper of all. I have a newspaper man in my family now, and I HAVE to do my part. I love the paper. I love all that it stands for, and even if I don't read it cover to cover...I know that there's in-depth info. and perspective there. The NYT is in trouble, though...so we'd better spread the word and get all our friends to get back to it!
Gail, you are so correct! People need to subscribe to the NYT. To put it in common vernacular, "It is SO worth saving"! Also, the NYT article on Education today had interesting references on educational funding in Dick Cheney's Wyoming.
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