Why do you read the newspaper?

[basketcase]

Sitting around talking with another Journalist (who, like myself, works in another profession), we commented on the decline in newspaper readership in recent years, and wandered into a debate on which sections of the newpaper are most popular and why.

Granted, a newspaper is geared to a diverse readership, but why do you read the paper?

My top three are:

- Local News/Obits
- Features/Human Interest
- Comics :brow

[BradfordBenn]

There is not really a good paper in my neck of the woods. For the national stuff there is TV and the weekly mags.

[lorazepam]

I have an ongoing "subscription" with USA today. I get one at all the hotels I stay at. I like to read the news once in a while, at least a talking head is not reading what someone else has written, and is being coached by earpiece. I can get sports from home no matter where I am at, and the financial page reads the same in every state.

[eljeffe]

Just enough to have the paper for the puppy to pee on. :bliss

[BMWRider]

Rick, I'd add "Op/Ed Page". I love to read the opinion section, both the readers' comments and the professional syndicated writers'.

[Ironhorsecowboy]

1 - local news/obits
2 - Opinions/editorials
3 - Classifieds

I guess I should just say since I work in a papermill I read to help keep a job. The paper industry has taken some very hard drops in sales and demand especially since most folks don't read them much anymore. I know at my company we only make newsprint on 2 or 3 machines out of 5 most of the time. We have diversified to various other paper and pulp products to stay in business. :eek

[kbasa]

I usually read the NYTimes.

Op/Ed
National news
World news

I get local news from our county paper.

[GeoffMiller]

Got to go with Ironhorsecowboy! Of course, the funnies are the necessary part of the "ahem"morning constitutional:D Also a big fan of NPR to get news! I am kind of disappointed with the number of pollsters who don't read the paper. Try it! It is a much more indepth analysis of what is going on in our turbulent world.

[Tinboatcapt]

(we have two) are so bloody socialist I can't read them until I've had my blood pressure medication. Proof? They've endorsed the likes of H.H. Humphry, G. McCarthy, W. Mondale, P. Wellstone...

[basketcase]

Well, when I knocked out the post I was thinking of Financial being in the Business section (which is true in our local litter box liner), and purely forgot Op/Ed as a seperate section -- although it falls in my "Local" section.

Hmm.

[sgborgstrom]

We only have a "weekly' here on the island but I have one of the two Seattle dailies delivered. Usually manage to read the "other" on the ferry trip home or at work where it gets delivered.

Sections read?
World news: skimmed through, nothing changes very quickly in this section
Local/op-ed: most closely read section, as a city employee and union leader I try to stay on top of local sentiment (I also see how wildly "spun" the news can get, and what never gets reported...if you only knew....)
Comics: One day Arlo (of Arlo and Janis) is going to show up on a bike, then I'll know for certain thre's a hidden camera somewhere in the house
Sports: The ball&stick stuff never appealed to me and they've barely discovered NASCAR much less motorcycles. Not to mention that anything having to do with the thousands of boats here in Puget Sound is relegated to the Local section, generally to a photo of the sunset with sails silhouetted....

An admitted NPR junkie, I get most of my world news from NPR and the BBC with a smattering of "salon.com" thrown in for good measure. My opinion here: TV news is basically lowest-common-denominator crap, though I will turn it on if there is a working fire and the helicopters are out.

Steve

[Cliffy777]

I said that I don't read the paper, then I realized that I regularly read two of them. But they are not dailies, they are local weeklies. (I should read more papers I guess since I cover HS sports and have a column in a total of 6 publications.)
I love small town weekly papers because they give you a good amount of "good news" to balance out the bad. They celebrate long term marriages, academic achievements, birthdays of the really old folks, and things like that. Sure they tell us about fires and hassles within the city councils, but the positive stuff is equal to, or greater than, the negative.
I am happy for this summer as I get to "cover" the US131 drag strip for a small paper. Mostly phone work, but I will be able to attend the drags a couple of times as "work".

[Visian]

Originally posted by RickM
... but why do you read the paper?


I read thousands of newspapers. Or more accurately, thousands of articles from these newspapers. It's important to have a balanced perspective on current events, and e pluribus unum.

Of course, I don't subscribe to these newspapers... or should I say, I don't subscribe to the paper versions of these newspapers.

There is a cool xml-based technology that's been around for a number of years but is just beginning to receive widespread notice, called RSS, and you can use RSS readers to subscribe to xml-formatted newsfeeds from zillions of sources around the world. These sources range from the most recognized names in publishing down to the personal ramblings of people just about anywhere (via their personal web logs, or "blogs"... as they are commonly referred to).

Then of course, there's news.google.com, which provides a pretty nicely balanced summary of news from sources worldwide.

Getting news from various perspectives is something I've always done. It's interesting to hear what other people think. When I go camping, I take a short wave radio and listen to news from countries around the world. There was a printed publication called Atlas World Press Review (http://www.stanleyfoundation.org/press/02132004.htm) but it just ceased publication.... probably because of technologies like these.

Newsfeeds are proving to be an extremely effective method of extending an organization's reach at an affordable price. I am presently consulting with a firm that is on the bleeding edge of such technologies, and they are working with many publishing companies that you have heard of. Definitely heard of.

Ian

[kbasa]

I'm most assuredly an internet kind of guy, but not much beats sitting down with the Sunday copy of the NYTimes. A big paper to explore, ads to read, pictures to look at, all while sitting and having some breakfast in the kitchen.

My current career revolves around databases that involve millions of pages of documentation and all those pages are stored as images. I definitely see the advantages of information push and moving away from paper.

However, I have 25 years of motorcycle and car magazines stored in my office and have, since I was a kid, enjoyed sitting somewhere and reading them. There's just something about the flexibility of the medium; it's portability, it's ability to freeze a moment in time, the ability to turn a page, that attracts me to print.

I don't think that internet push information sources and paper media are mutually exclusive. I think they're complimentary and each have a place in delivery of information to users.

[Visian]

Originally posted by KBasa
I don't think that internet push information sources and paper media are mutually exclusive. I think they're complimentary and each have a place in delivery of information to users.

This is not push, it's subscribe/poll (http://www.codeproject.com/soap/OPC_XML-DA_Clients.asp) to web services.

Sunday morning? I'm out riding!!! :D

And not to get into another discussion of print vs. bits... ;) but you're right, the two aren't mutually exclusive, they can be synergized in a complementary fashion (although some may view the web as a complimentary fashion... ;) ) and as long as I am not forced to access a particular piece of information through a particular medium, I am one happy camper.

Ian

[ScottM]

I find this pretty interesting. The number of folks who don't read a paper is pretty high. Wonder if this is due to the seemingly slanted news coverage or some other reason. I know I now almost exclusively get my daily world news from a few internet sites and talk radio. Granted they may be slanted, but they are tipped the way I like to think. I don't have a bird and aren't potty training a puppy, so don't have much use for dead trees anymore.;)

[Visian]

Scott --

While I don't have any firm data, my gut tells me that it is a combination of inconvenience and downright impatience -- as well as a general sense of bias and a limited amount of perspective -- that is driving the use of more advanced information delivery technologies.

Media habits are changing, yet print will never die. You just can't beat the feeling of curling up next to the fire with your favorite book, magazine or newspaper and just readin' a spell.

Or can you? (http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/102/C2393/)

:)

http://www.mobilemag.com/content/images/2393_large.jpg

Ian

[ScottM]

Ian,

You are absolutely right. I would never give up the paper copies of some of the mags I receive. After all it is down right ackward to bring the computer into the toliet. :brow

[username]

i like to read the paper, and i dont like to read the paper. this is a little peeve of mine. i read the paper at home on the weekends. i read the news on the net during the week. this is because if i kick back with a newspaper at my desk, im slacking. if i read on the internet, im working. ;)

part of the weekend thing is it's kind of a ritual for me and my SO. we brew some coffee and loaf around and read the sunday paper. less because our sunday paper is any good, and more because it's part of our relationship. maybe i ought to get the sunday NYT sent to the house, and i'll get a better read too.

when i fly im a bit different. i read the NYT and WSJ, because theyre easily accessible and have lots of information. my preference would be to read both of these papers every day, and there are two reasons i wont. first, i freakin HATE newsprint and the ink. after i read the paper i look like i just got done being fingerprinted! and the paper dries out my fingertips, it sucks the moisture right out of them. (oh my delicate hands!!!) the second is the cost. i think i'd end up dropping over $2 a day to have them both delivered to my house (this is after any introductory offer expires...) and i dont feel like spending ~500 for dirty hands and a massively overflowing recycle bin. and for me, the NYT and WSJ are best exeprienced in broadsheet form. they just dont work online for me. i like being able to hold it up and scan it quickly for things im interested in.

as for which sections i like, i have zero interested in all classifieds, 'metro' or 'local' news about austin, the 'life' section, the travel section. i guess as i get older, i'm sure i will read the obits to see who has died, this seems to be one of the things that happens to all of us when we get old. but right now i don't. basically i like only the first section and the bidness section of most newspapers. in NYT i do like the arts/living sections on occasion, but mostly because they have more interesting things to me, and i think im a metrosexual trapped in a geek's life. austin's local paper is supposedly one of the better ones, but i still find it to be lacking - we have this section at the end called 'world and nation' and there is usually only a column one article (goes down the left side of the page) and it's continued inside. then next to it is a gigantic furniture outlet ad or something dopey. then inside, the ratio of ads to information is easily 30:1. i am not making that up. our 'world and nation' news has very little actual news.

whatever, you dont care about my gripes with my local paper...

find a way to keep the ink on the paper, and off my fingers (no gloves!) and get me the WSJ and NYT on my doorstep each morning for $1 total, and i'd read the actual paper wayyy more often.

[Visian]

Originally posted by ScottM
... it is down right ackward to bring the computer into the toliet. :brow

Yep... a bluetooth PDA works much better for that! :burnout

[Visian]

Originally posted by username
find a way to keep the ink on the paper, and off my fingers (no gloves!) and get me the WSJ and NYT on my doorstep each morning for $1 total, and i'd read the actual paper wayyy more often.

Read the paper in the afternoon... after the ink dries!

My favorite paper is The Financial Times. (http://news.ft.com/home/us) (It's that orange-y/pink paper that you see in First Class on international flights.) I can't afford the real-world version because of what it costs to get it to my house. However a subscription to the on-line edition is really a great value.

Financial Times has incredible analysis of international business and issues, gives me great insight into the thoughts of non-Americans, and a perspective on events that comes from outside the US. Which seems to be very important these days.

And for balance, there are a few news sources (http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/) that Eric Blume turned me on to.

Lately I've been getting into the RSS Newsreader thing, which aggregates content from a ton of sources, places it into a consistent UI and integrates a browser component so that you can cruise websites much more efficiently.

That will keep the ink off your fingers.

Ian

[Rob Nye]

Greetings,

I second the nod to the Financial Times. We get this and the Wall Street Journal delivered to the office every day.

For industry news we get a weekly publication called Tradewinds (http://www.tradewinds.no/). Their website and paper compliment each other very well.

I also like the Boston Globe and read the comics first. This is home delivered and I don't always get to it. Most of the stuff in the first two sections I have already seen on the web.

The ProJo (Providence Journal aka Providence Urinal) is horrible. They can even ruin comics.

Best,

[Colt03]

We have the oldest liberal paper every put in print. The Hartford Courant. I get calls about three times a year giving me a great deal on it. I tell them that when they change thier editorial stance I might consider. In the mean time, I read a loca paper at night which is very well balanced and covers the local news better and the national news just as well. Plus the sports section is better. The only thing good about the Courant is the ads. I try to scan those when I am having lunch or breakfast. I use the net to get a lot of news, but I agree it can't replace a newspaper. I also get a weekly paper from my hometown Lancaster, Nh . The Coos County Democrat. Very nice paper filled with local NH type info.

as always YMMV

[BradfordBenn]

I guess the other big reason is that I do lots of market condition research at the office, so I do not consider reading the WSJ as reading the paper, I consider it work/research. Make sense?

Plus I listen to NPR, CNN HN, BBC, and others on the XM to get news. (XM junkie, have it in the cage, in the office, in the house... next the motorcycles.)

The biggest reason I stopped reading the printed newspaper. I felt guilty about all the paper that was being used that I was not paying any attention to. Just on a whim, I saved every section of the newspaper I did not read for a week at home - before we cancelled it - it was almost 20 pounds!

However do not take my magazines away! Also if I am interested in a story I have found online, I will print it out to read it. It just seems to be easier to read and retain that way.

[YB in IN]

Indiana Daily Student for the comics and information about events on campus, NPR for the rest of the news. "All Things Considered" syncs up with when I make dinner quite nicely.