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Copies of the final edition of the Rocky Mountain News sit in the Washington Street Printing Plant of the Denver Newspaper Agency in Denver on Thursday. E.W. Scripps Co., owners of the News, which is Colorado’s oldest newspaper dating back to 1859, announced on Thursday that the paper will cease publication with today’s edition. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
JBelle: One thing that I think is truly rueful is that unlike the banks, the auto industry and AIG, the newspapers haven’t gone whining to Congress for bail outs. And arguably, the newspapers were more influential that the former in settling this country, making it America and making us all Americans. I say God Bless and Godspeed, Rocky Mountain News. We were so privileged to have known you.
Question: Do you still subscribe to a newspaper? Which one? How many? Do you plan to continue to subscribe to a newspaper?
D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.
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idawa on February 27 at 8:12 a.m.
I still subscribe to the Sunday Seattle Times, but that is it. What is sad about this is that readership is at an all time high, more people are reading their daily paper than ever before but are doing it for free online. For some reason, though, this isn’t translating into revenue as advertisers just won’t pay the same price for online space as they do for print. It is also disappointing to see that the aggregation sites are doing well but the sources for the material they aggregate suffering…there should be some sort of article licensing arrangement. On “Mad Money,” Jim Cramer properly characterizes Google as a publishing company rather than a tech stock as it is sucking all the money away from other publishers…sad.
Someone will figure out how to monetize news again - perhaps a PBS/NPR type model (reader supported) or a pay for story method like iTunes but for news…who knows. Maybe not in DFO’s career, but someday…I have hope. A democracy can not survive without a free press.
moscow_minidoka on February 27 at 8:17 a.m.
I still subscribe to a newspaper (the Spokesman, although I flirt with getting the Moscow-Pullman Daily News instead), and *will* as long as they continue to print them. I work on a computer, and although I goof off doing things like HBO online, I DO NOT want to rely on the internet for my news, simply because I do not want to stare at a screen all the time… and I really like having a newspaper.
TMI Alert: I like to take the newspaper into the bathroom with me in the morning. I’m not taking my computer in there. The newspaper plays a major role in my morning routine (which is why I’m so furious that the SR comes an hour later than it used to since the SR farmed out delivery on the Palouse to the Lewiston Tribune.
I also pick up every issue of the weekly Inlander and the monthly Out There. In addition to that, I subscribe to High Country News and four magazines.
And I’m under 35, so this isn’t a case of me being some anti-change great-grandpa yelling at kids to get off of his lawn. I’ve been a voracious reader since I was 4, and reading stuff on a screen is NOT the same.
JeanC on February 27 at 9:45 a.m.
I stop subscribing to a newspaper years ago. I am not walking a quarter mile to the mail box to retrieve it in the morning since I can’t get front door delivery where I live and I won’t subscribe to the Snooze since they are pretty lousy about local news. If I want to check the Snooze, I wait until it comes across my desk at work and then give it a quick check to see if they actually have anything of interest (usually not).
Kage_Mann on February 27 at 12:41 p.m.
Why would anybody want to pay for a paper, when you could read it online for free? Provided you were online to begin with.
The computer is one of the greatest inventions around and irreplacible.
moscow_minidoka on February 27 at 1:39 p.m.
Kage_Mann: Because I don’t want to hold a computer on my lap while I am taking care of my morning “business”?
I do my best reading in the bathroom. I don’t want to do it on a computer.
My wife does the crossword in bed before we go to sleep. She *also* has no desire to do puzzles on a machine when she could be nestled in bed.
Some folks seem to be very reductionist in their evaluation of a newspaper as a simple news source… to MANY of us, it is far more than the information, it is the organic experience.
Let me put this another, albeit somewhat crude way: Would you prefer to have intercourse with a machine or a human if the end result (a climax) was the same? I’ll take the human, thank you very much, and I’ll take the newspaper with my morning constitutional, not my computer.
Joker on February 27 at 2:03 p.m.
Moscow,
My computer dispenses toilet paper while I am doing business. It’s pretty awesome.
JeanC on February 27 at 2:12 p.m.
Would be nice if all newspapers were free online. Both the Snooze and Lewiston Trib are behind a subscription wall if you want to read anything and only a bit of the Spokesman is available for free.
shinie on February 27 at 4:41 p.m.
I’ll admit, I subscribe to the Press. I like to know what is going on in my community. I also like to have access to coupons and sales advertised by local merchants.
Even if the info is online for free, there is something more satisfying about physically thumbing through the paper. I spend so much time on the computer as it is, I don’t want to add my newspaper reading time to the mix.
inlandempiregirl on February 27 at 5:03 p.m.
Many of you have heard this, but it is worth repeating. I want to subscribe the SR, but they have cut daily service in the rural areas of northeastern Washington so I can’t get a paper delivered. I do get it online though. I miss the hard copy paper and miss walking out in the morning and bringing it in from my bright yellow Idaho Vandal paper box. One piece of good news… a staff member at our school brings papers every day from Chewelah so at least the library and other classrooms can have a paper to read.
florined on February 27 at 5:23 p.m.
I subscribe to the SR, but the online version. I think a pro paper gives me several things: (1) the results of pro writers, guided by pro editors (2) news with at least some degree of validation and (3) info from people actually following local events.
When I feel that SR is no longer giving me those 3 advantages, I’ll have to reconsider.