The only thing keeping most small town newspapers in business is publishing legal notices. Once that standard enters the 21st century, the ones that haven't already died will die quickly thereafter . . .
Daily Paper Delivery
- Thread starter Narragansett
- Start date
I get the Wall Street Journal daily for myself and pay for a subscription for My elderly mother. I'm very lucky, the person who delivers my paper always has it on my doorstep by 4:30 am, which is great for me, as I can read most of it before work.
I also get the Epoch Times weekly, a very good paper, different from other publications as it has a Christian viewpoint. However, the USPS does a poor job with delivery. I never know when or if it will arrive.
I also get the Epoch Times weekly, a very good paper, different from other publications as it has a Christian viewpoint. However, the USPS does a poor job with delivery. I never know when or if it will arrive.
Paper newspapers pricing themselves out of business!
Our local newspaper is called the Delaware County Daily Times (PA). It is $2.95 an issue which is frequently 29 pages.That is more than $1,050.00 for the year. I do enjoy reading it while I eat breakfast and have been reading it for more than 50 years. Our paper lady is the best and she is one of the reasons that I am still subscribing. When she retires I think that I will be done.
Our local newspaper is called the Delaware County Daily Times (PA). It is $2.95 an issue which is frequently 29 pages.That is more than $1,050.00 for the year. I do enjoy reading it while I eat breakfast and have been reading it for more than 50 years. Our paper lady is the best and she is one of the reasons that I am still subscribing. When she retires I think that I will be done.
Our local rag is owned by Hearst. Used to be decently thick. Now the daily papers are barely there, and the Sunday paper has morphed to a Saturday/Sunday edition that actually comes out on Saturday. It's about as thick as the dailies used to be. They also closed down the local printing plant. It's now printed elsewhere and trucked in, so the news is already "old" by the time it gets here. Plus the editorials have become increasingly left leaning in a VERY conservative city.
$624/year for home delivery. No thanks. Not interested.
$624/year for home delivery. No thanks. Not interested.
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jrm53
Member
We subscribe to the Arkansas Democrat Gazzet for 34.00 a month and read it on the computer, we do get a Sunday delivered, if it was not for the legal notices I think it would be gone. Jeff
NFrameFred
Member
Stopped taking a daily paper years ago. Started seeing three day old news as the lead stories, state government coverage that was all slanted one way, local news that wasn't news to more than two or three people . . . . and unfortunately it appears a lot of die-hard publishers and editors seem to believe the newspaper to be a bastion of only liberalism and yet wonder why their livelihoods are drying up.
Applied to the "news" in general (papers, online, and TV) there seems to me to be a clear demarcation between those of us who remember when the news mostly presented just the facts - who, what, when, and where, leaving the reader to decide the 'why' of the matter - and those who believe and are content to let the 'news' tell them what they should think about it.
Showing my age, but I remember Chet Huntly, David Brinkley, Walter Cronkite and the like simply informing us of the four "W's" listed above. Never bothered to learn about Huntly & Brinkley's personal leanings but it became known late in his life ( to me, and I think most of us) that Cronkite's leanings were very liberal. Point being, it never seemed to show up in his reporting of the news, at least in my recollection.
The advent of 24 hour news and round the clock broadcast coverage with the non-stop talking heads has changed that landscape forever, and not for the better in my personal view. The lines between reporting and editorializing are so blurred now as to make it meaningless. Broadcasters are usually no more than shills paid to shape a particular view of what's happening in the world.
Were it not for obituary notices I would have no use for a local paper anymore whatsoever. For a while the papers used to put those online for free until they found no one wanted their online subscriptions so they stopped that and made it paid content. At least here in the back country obits were once a public service by the local papers, now that's a charged for service.
As hard as it is to watch and admit, things change and when even things we're traditionally used to having around outlive their time and usefulness it's time for them to die.
Applied to the "news" in general (papers, online, and TV) there seems to me to be a clear demarcation between those of us who remember when the news mostly presented just the facts - who, what, when, and where, leaving the reader to decide the 'why' of the matter - and those who believe and are content to let the 'news' tell them what they should think about it.
Showing my age, but I remember Chet Huntly, David Brinkley, Walter Cronkite and the like simply informing us of the four "W's" listed above. Never bothered to learn about Huntly & Brinkley's personal leanings but it became known late in his life ( to me, and I think most of us) that Cronkite's leanings were very liberal. Point being, it never seemed to show up in his reporting of the news, at least in my recollection.
The advent of 24 hour news and round the clock broadcast coverage with the non-stop talking heads has changed that landscape forever, and not for the better in my personal view. The lines between reporting and editorializing are so blurred now as to make it meaningless. Broadcasters are usually no more than shills paid to shape a particular view of what's happening in the world.
Were it not for obituary notices I would have no use for a local paper anymore whatsoever. For a while the papers used to put those online for free until they found no one wanted their online subscriptions so they stopped that and made it paid content. At least here in the back country obits were once a public service by the local papers, now that's a charged for service.
As hard as it is to watch and admit, things change and when even things we're traditionally used to having around outlive their time and usefulness it's time for them to die.
Sistema1927
US Veteran
I used to get the WSJ physical paper delivered daily as well. However, it is no longer available in that format here in Albuquerque, so I get the online version. I'm old enough to prefer paper, but, oh well....
Newspapers have been going downhill since Pulitzer and Hearst declared "Yellow Journalism" war on each other.
And obituaries….
Only a matter of time before the same thing happens in my area. I'll miss a paper in my hands dearly.
The High School I retired from got maybe 30 copies USA Today, Wall Street Journal and the local (not Sentinel) papers daily. Nobody took them so I got in the habit or reading them on my lunch. I spent 15 minutes reading, 15 eating, 27 minute nap (most important). Not much real information in them. The local "police beat" was a hoot. 90% VOP, battery, DUI. I haven't subscribed in this century. Joe
sigp220.45
US Veteran
One of my many college jobs was at the Illinois Radio Reader Service, which was a free closed circuit broadcast to blind folks where we would read the local papers to them. There were a ton of small town papers then, most of them weeklies. All they wanted to hear was the obits, and maybe some school news. I bet I read 10,000 obituaries, in all their "survived by/preceded by" glory.
I also got to read the Wall Street Journal, since none of the other readers wanted to do it because it was (at least in 1979) fairly conservative and they most definitely were not. It didn't matter that the blind folks wanted to hear it.
I was surprised how much good stuff was in the WSJ. My favorite part was always those dot matrix-y looking pictures.
I also got to read the Wall Street Journal, since none of the other readers wanted to do it because it was (at least in 1979) fairly conservative and they most definitely were not. It didn't matter that the blind folks wanted to hear it.
I was surprised how much good stuff was in the WSJ. My favorite part was always those dot matrix-y looking pictures.
Attachments
My mom still gets the paper for the same reason rpg's dad did. I stopped when the Rocky went under,but subscribed to the Journal for awhile. I miss the Rocky!
It occurred to me, I don't think I ever worked a job where I got an hour for lunch.
Actually, it was a class period of 54 minutes. With the "passing time" (I let the stampede get over before I started walking) I got the extra 3 minutes. They have since gone back to "A" and "B" lunch of 1/2 hour. Some years I got "planning" next to lunch which gave an hour and 40 minutes break. Believe me, time off is the only "+" in teaching currently. Joe
I still get the Wall Street Journal electronically. The local newspaper has become part of the USA Today complex and the news is trash with a heavy liberal bias on top of that.
The Weimaraner refused to even eat his dog food on it so I cancelled.
The Weimaraner refused to even eat his dog food on it so I cancelled.
High school got a 1/2 hour for lunch. The cafeteria might not have been that good but it was fast.
As a construction laborer and then pipefitter we technically got a 1/2 hour but on occasion you might be able to grab a few minuets more. All my construction lunch time was a unpaid period!
After I retired and drove a large truck for a few years, we supposedly got a 1/2 hour paid lunch time. Due to traffic and weather many times I ate (brown bagger) driving my truck to its next delivery. Course I kept a running account of time in my head and on better driving days my lunch time was a lot longer. AKA nap time! In my mental ledger I came out way ahead!
I must have done things OK as when I told them I'm quitting to move up to the lake they tried their best to keep me on longer!
"Just the facts, ma'am." Sgt Joe Friday.
Al Shottelkotte (sp?) @ 11p.
Had a small puddle at the end of the driveway - Carrier could hit it every time - Might have been a basketball player.
Used to enjoy reading the legal notices in the paper of record.
Got tired of trying to find articles between the advertisements - Yes - I know that's what paid their bills.
Many other sources for news today - As implied in a previous post, one has to 'cipher' things out for themselves. Derive your output from many inputs.
Still miss the news on paper though.
Al Shottelkotte (sp?) @ 11p.
Had a small puddle at the end of the driveway - Carrier could hit it every time - Might have been a basketball player.
Used to enjoy reading the legal notices in the paper of record.
Got tired of trying to find articles between the advertisements - Yes - I know that's what paid their bills.
Many other sources for news today - As implied in a previous post, one has to 'cipher' things out for themselves. Derive your output from many inputs.
Still miss the news on paper though.
I remember my grandmother using the Washington Post for paper training her dog.
My local paper, the Gettysburg Times, announced that the electronic edition of tomorrow's paper will be free to everyone, as because of the anticipated crummy weather the regular carriers might have trouble making timely deliveries.
ggibson511960
Member
I have always been a fan of George Will, one of the smartest and most urbane columnists ever. Years ago he opined that the only credible newspapers left were the financial papers such as Barrons and the Wall Street Journal. I find this to be true. I get WSJ in both paper and electronic form. Electronic substitutes for paper when traveling. I find it soothing and comfortable to read the WSJ with morning coffee. It has a political lean, but nothing compared to my city paper that is a cheap political yellow sheet with very little intellectual depth. Journalism survives at WSJ but rarely anywhere else.
lawandorder
Member
The Arkansas Gazette was my favorite for years and then in the nasty
....newspaper war between the two state wide papers the Gazette lost. The Democrat won and changed its masthead to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. Suffered with it for several years then as the internet expanded its popularity and coverage I quit the paper.
Just for grins bought a print copy week ago Sunday. Sticker Shock, 3.00 for a small bit of pup paper.
No ads to speak of except legal notices, no inserts.
Newspapers are dead and news has become polarized propaganda.
....newspaper war between the two state wide papers the Gazette lost. The Democrat won and changed its masthead to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. Suffered with it for several years then as the internet expanded its popularity and coverage I quit the paper.
Just for grins bought a print copy week ago Sunday. Sticker Shock, 3.00 for a small bit of pup paper.
No ads to speak of except legal notices, no inserts.
Newspapers are dead and news has become polarized propaganda.
