Well, we’re making another move away from history and into the present; we’ve cancelled our newspaper subscription.
This may sound funny to those under the age of, oh let’s say 30, but to those of us who were born before television, a newspaper was a major part of our lives. Before 24-hour cable news, computers, and text messaging, there was radio and newspapers. Radios were great, and you could listen to the news, but that was typically in the evening after working on the farm all day, and most likely you fell asleep in the chair before hearing all the news.
The paper, on the other hand, was read in the morning, usually with breakfast. A plate ladened with bacon, eggs, fried potatoes or grits, and toast with butter, sat next to a cup of coffee, and the paper was often folded into quarters so it could be tucked in next to your plate.
The news, at least when I was a kid, was pretty current, though in my grandparents time it could take days or even weeks for the latest news to reach across the nation, or from other parts of the world. Once the telephone was developed and deployed, news came “with the speed of light”.
Not too long ago, Seattle had two daily newspapers, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer – an odd sort of name – and the Seattle Times. Without going into a long history, they battled it out for years, and eventually entered into some sort of joint agreement to use the same production facilities for printing and distributing papers. That worked for a time, but eventually the Times claimed that they were losing money and wanted to kick the P-I out. Court battles ensued, and eventually the Times won out, and the P-I ceased it’s print operation and now exists only online.
We had been P-I subscribers for a long time. We liked their political lean, generally to the left, and we like their coverage, reporters, and even their comics better than the Times.
With the demise of the P-I, we were offered a seamless switchover to the Times, and so we went with that; we didn’t really have much choice unless we wanted to get the New York Times or Wall Street Journal. There’s nothing wrong with either of those papers, but we wouldn’t get any of our local stuff in them.
It’s been over a year now and the Times is just not getting it done for us. For instance, and this will only mean something to locals, they endorsed ultra-conservative Susan Hutchinson over Dow Constantine for King Country Executive; fortunately, Constantine won. That’s just one example of their right-leaning tendencies that rub us the wrong way.
As for comics, I love Sherman’s Lagoon, Pearls Before Swine, Non Sequitur, and Dilbert. Only Dilbert and Pearls survives in the Times, and the other two show up only on Sundays.
Generally, the front page is all local news. That’s not necessarily a bad thing – it is after all a city daily – but we would prefer the front section, or at least the first few pages be devoted to national and international news, then get to the local stuff.
Then there is the issue of cost. A yearly subscription to a shrinking publication is $260. That is probably not all that bad if you divide it by 365 days – it comes to 71 cents a day, but we have 24-hour cable news, and high-speed internet that’s costing us almost $100/month, and there’s no end to the news on both machines. The news on both of those sources is instant and immediate.
Quite often, when we read the morning paper, we’d already read many of the stories online, or heard them on television; it was old news.
So, we’re in our first week of paper and ink withdrawal. It’s been a bit of an adjustment so far. I would typically stand at the sink with the paper on the drainboard, eating my breakfast and reading the paper. That habit started when I still worked for a living and didn’t think I had time to sit down and enjoy breakfast; I was always aware of time and schedules.
For now, my laptop computer has replaced the paper, and while it’s not quite the same, it’s working. My wife would sit on the sofa and read the paper while she ate her half-quesadilla – that’s her breakfast. Now she turns on CNN, or one of the other news channels and catches up there.
I use a Google start page that I’ve customized with various news sources; CNN, USA Today, BBC, Seattle P-I, stock market data and news, my comics, local sports, and a handful of other odd news sources. It’s not quite like flipping pages, but it’s actually a more extensive set of coverage than I ever got from the paper.
I must admit that, as a writer, I feel a sense of guilt abandoning other writers for this digital approach, but maybe it’s time we old lions realized that the world is changing faster, and in ways we never imagined.
In any case, we’ve made the break, and so far the DT’s haven’t been that bad. Who knows, we might disconnect that landline phone next and go with our cell phones.
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