Ever since I can remember being able to read which would mean our first year in Decatur, every day except rare occasions I have held the newspaper in my hand to read it. As kids we would race to the yard to be the first to get the newspaper and by far one of the best times of the week for me is when I first get up on Saturday morning. I put on the coffee, step out the front door, pick up the paper and then read it.
I have a set order to read a paper. Typically I'm a section A to the end kind of reader, but the GR Press puts the comics at the back of section B so here on weekdays my order is A, C, B. Yes, that's one of my quirks. And don't start me on people who read the paper before I do and don't put the sections back together very nicely. OK, that's my second newspaper quirk.
Every time I've moved (pause for all the groans and comments people are saying or thinking about the number of times I've moved!), about the first thing I would do after finding a place to live was to order the newspaper.
Yesterday the GR Press announced that they are doing away with home delivery on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday!!! I am devastated. It is not the same to hold a laptop and read "the paper". I like the feel of the newspaper and the Press on-line doesn't include features that I like such as the advice columns or comics. The Sunday paper lists many sporting events for Saturday as TBA and the Saturday morning paper announces the teams who are playing.
I'm pretty sure I'm not getting dressed to go out and buy a newspaper on Saturday mornings.
I realize this is a sign of the times and many people don't subscribe to the newspaper anymore, but this is a serious change to my weekends and weekday life, and I don't like it.
I think of the Klopfenstein family as a newspaper readers. I always thought it was interesting to hear people talk about the Pantagraph--what a funny name for a newspaper I always thought as a kid.
So, who still subscribes to a newspaper or do you read your news on-line, or are you not a news reader?
9 comments:
We are online Pantagraph only, but it is true that it's not the same as a newspaper, and not everything is included online. However, it is also true that I wasn't reading the paper much, and it was an expensive hobby to just do the crossword and Sudoku puzzles everyday. The Pantagraph gets smaller all the time, and I would not be surprised if changes were made there, too, sometime down the line.
Loved your headline!
We subscribe to the Chicago Tribune. I try to find time to read it every day - sometimes in the morning after I get all the boys off to school. Sometimes it waits until I have a cup of coffee in the afternoon. Occasionally, I glance through it in the evening after dinner.
The changes in font have bothered me more than anything else...and they keep updating look of the front page! The paper makes me think of my dad reading it after dinner. Maybe that's why I don't want it to change at all. It would be painful to only be able to read it online.
For a while I got the New York Times - just on Sundays. I would slowly read that all week. I had a professor in college that told us she did the same - so I tried it for a while and enjoyed it.
Like you, Rk2, I will be devastated when the Peoria paper either quits delivering or goes out of business altogether. A computer cannot compare to the "feel" of a real newspaper. I spend way too much time reading it, however, reading all the little articles about local robberies, beatings, and all the other detailed items. I am relieved when I DON'T see names of my former students. I, too, switch around with the Sections, in this order: Local, sports, Business, & lastly section A (world news). I seldom, if ever, read comics (Dagwood only), horoscopes, classifieds, or "Home decorating/Gardening" articles. I do peruse the the Advice columns, however (they take the place of the comics).
I read the Pantagraph most days but am certainly not addicted - and when on vacation don't miss it at all. When I read it, I read the front page, the obits, Dear Abby, and perhaps a few headlines catch my attention as I flip through the pages.
I used to love the comics but since they made them smaller a while back, I just can't read the small print. In fact one reason I don't read it is that the big pages are too difficult to read with my trifocals. Also we've already seen everything in the paper on the nightly news.
Jerry, on the other hand, reads it completely. Some days I just ask him if there is anything new in the paper and he says "no".
We've tried to stop getting the Chicago Tribune delivered. They keep sending the Sunday paper anyway. It goes unread about half the time. I don't miss it at all.
I read the NY Times online every day and sometimes the Washington Post. NPR on my commute to / from work (about an hour each way).
I think I read the Pantagraph every day during breakfast from the time I was in about fourth grade. Can't figure out how to get my kids to do something similar. Rest assured if I do it will be on an iPad or their phones. They are thoroughly modern.
From June 2010 to June 2011 I wrote a monthly column for Saturday's religion page in our local paper, and was amazed that during that time, not one person under about age 45 was aware of or commented on the column. They simply didn't know it was there because they do not get the paper.
I would really miss not reading a daily paper, one that I can hold; but at the same time recognize that that is because of the habit of reading a physical paper for so long. It is a dying format.
It's useless for true news. Most of the time the news in the newspaper, I knew about as much as 24 hours beforehand, due to the internet.
I like the feature stories, Abby, the TV schedule, and local items. Also a few comics.
We have stopped getting the Kansas City Star (much to my Dad's dismay...especially when he visits). We have not missed it at all! Well, I sometimes miss the Sunday coupons. Occasionally when they have delivered it here to try to entice us to subscribe again, Anna and Timon have devoured it.... they are huge readers and soak up everything. And, in my opinion, not everything in the newspaper is appropriate for 5-7 year olds. So that is a big reason I'm glad we don't get it. Brandon looks at the paper online and if there's anything worth knowing about, he tells me.
Where we live, the Pantagraph doesn't consider it an "in town" route. As a matter of principle, I refuse to walk out to the end of my driveway to pick up the paper because I supposedly live "out of town." My tax bill certainly does not support that! So, the Pantagraph refuses to bring the paper to my door like they do for all "in town" customers, and I refuse to buy it. I read it online every dasy, sometimes more than once. I also read cnn.com, today.com (to catch up on the stories I had to miss from leaving for work) and people.com quite often.
We take the Peoria paper every day. We usually read it at the breakfast table. I pick the local section first and Keith reads the business. I read the entire paper, but he reads mostly national news.
Occasionally they forget us and I am not a happy camper. They get a call from me and I let them know that I am not very happy.
We never look for news on the internet.
I can't figure out how they can forget us when we have taken the paper forever.
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