Aging with Loss: The End of an Era: No More Delivered Newspaper
Monday, December 1, 2008 at 07:30AM
We canceled our newspaper subscription. This was a harder decision for us to make than you would think. For 25 years, the newspaper was daily in our home. Ours is a moderately liberal paper and we are a moderately conservative twosome. The paper challenged our thinking, exposed us to other ways of seeing the world. It made it easy to vote. I could take the list of recommended candidates to the polls and vote for the other gal.
It was a well-written paper with informative local and world news. The sports section was beloved by my son and husband. When he wouldn’t read anything else, my son would read the sports page.
The comic page was always read in our home. My kids aged as the kids in For Better or Worse did. I like having a daily crossword puzzle to puzzle over. One I could usually finish.
The paper arrived on or about our property through ice storms and hurricanes. If for some reason, our paper wasn’t to be found, one call to customer service caused one to be delivered later in the day.
Things changed: The sports section seems to be the only section unscathed by the changes. The comics went from one column to three; the crossword became way too easy. The religion section became a religion column; the food section began to shrink.
The pictures were becoming more appropriate to page 6 of the NYPOST than our family friendly southern newspaper.
The change that made us decide to cancel is the loss of world and in-depth local overage of the news. I can get news bites from CNN and Fox News online. Our paper is buying out or is laying off the local investigative reporters and commentators. The front page sometimes is more tabloid in content that hard news. There are more ads than reporting.
We can get our world news online, by radio or on TV free. We can’t get in-depth local coverage from our local newspaper anymore. I guess I will buy USA Today occasionally for their crossword puzzle.
I will miss the way things were. Good-bye old friend...you changed and I will miss you.
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Reader Comments (7)
I had the same experience. We lived our entire married life on Long Island, with the Newsday, which had been an award winning paper. I loved everything about it. The comics that reminded me of my family were first Baby Blues and then Zits. But then in the last 5 years or so it really went downhill. We moved into the city last year and could have still gotten the Newsday since they deliver there also but we chose to stop. I miss the puzzles, but that is all. I read all of my news online now. It is very sad, though, what is happening to local papers.
Yes, it's interesting how things can change. Well, I guess you can look at the good side: You're saving a little money.
Living in the City , you might not have time to read the paper anymore!
Petula, What we save on the paper I will probably spend on crossword puzzle books!
That's so sad. But you gotta do what you gotta do. On the bright side, you won't have to worry about recycling all the paper anymore.
It's a really tough time for newspapers as they try to figure out how to compete with the internet or make the internet work for them. So many cutbacks. I used to work in the newspaper industry and still have friends there, and even I don't read the paper edition anymore.
We are lucky to have two major newspapers, one liberal, one conservative. Both continue to exist side by side, I read the whole over coffee, it's a good life
I can't stand our local paper. It's always been a liberal rag. I could tell that even when I was younger and not super political.
Besides, newspapers are going the way of the Doodoo bird. They're pretty much irrelevant. Except for the coupons. =)