Garry used to read three newspapers every day. It was partly because he was a reporter and needed to know what was going on, but also because he actually wants to know what’s happening in his world.
Me? I’ve always been a newspaper skimmer. A glance through the front page, then a rapid trip through the rest of the stories. I was always fond of The New York Times because they treated archaeological finds as headline news.
No other newspaper did (does) that.
My other favorite paper was The Vineyard Gazette, published on Martha’s Vineyard (it’s a subsidiary of The Boston Globe which is owned by The New York Times). They treated bird-sightings as important news. I felt that these papers understand the meaning of the word “news,” that it wasn’t just crime, disaster, and politics. There really are other things that are at least as important. For some of us, much more important.
Book reviews, movie reviews, news of exhibits at museums … to me these are news. I guess they don’t sell papers the way stories of fresh disasters can.
These days, politics is news of fresh disasters. I wonder if newspapers are selling better these days?
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Categories: #News
SERENDIPITY: SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
Newspapers are dying. Sadly. Our 2 papers here are thin and waning. I remember when they used to be so thick that the kids didn’t want to deliver them.
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True here too. I wonder if the election won’t drive up newspaper sales. I guess we’ll see.
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I learned how to read, thanks to the newspaper my father read religiously. He was so absorbed I figured that all these small black signs had to be interesting. Later when I lived in Paris I loved buying the newspaper before climbing down to the metro. I would read on my way to wherever I was going. I would do the same on the way back. So I was well informed. Now I still read the New York Times (mostly the weekend paper edition) and online French papers. I used to believe that I would always read the paper version, truth is I often read the online news. There is, however, something special with the paper. The sound of the page when I turn it. The smell and even the light black inkink on my fingers (used to be bad…)
A little nostagic here…
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I love the smell of newspapers and ink. I sometimes read the newspapers after Garry is done, but a lot of what passes for news these days – online and in print – seems more like gossip to me. But like you, there’s something about it that brings good sense memories. Like opening a new book. It’s not just the words. It’s an experience.
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I get my news from the BBC website I must admit. No news print on my fingers! Plus no extra paper to recycle 🙂
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I get most news online, but Garry is sports addicted. He needs the print. I also suspect the endless pop-up ads drive him nuts.
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No ads on the BBC!
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Reading news in a newspaper is better than on the internet. I like turning the pages and getting the ink on my hands. Although, I hate it when people fold a newspaper inside out. It should be read like a book, not like origami.
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Garry loves his paper. Likes to sit and memorize the box scores. Read something, put it down, pick it up later and reread it. Pass it to me, circled, because he thinks I’ll find it interesting. And usually, I do. So he buys a paper. I read the circled parts 🙂
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For many years, we got the paper delivered every day. But then I realized that hubby and I could just read it at work and save the money, so we went to Sundays only. A few months back, however, I realized that I didn’t enjoy retrieving the paper from the snow drifts while clad only in my PJs, and I was only skimming it anyway, so I cancelled it. Now I just get my news online, and hubby gets the news on TV. The only time I really miss the physical newspaper is when I need to pack something and am forced to use paper towels instead.
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I think when you live in areas like we do … you know, snow drifts followed by freezing and torrential rains, then more snow? You know. Home. They always throw the paper at the very top of the driveway. Doesn’t matter whether it’s a pile of slush, a puddle, or the middle of the woods. And it’s a long, cold hike up the slippery road to get it. So yeah, if it’s too nasty for Garry to go out and buy one, this is what they invented the internet for.
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Hello, I am dunelight and I am a news junkie.
Leaving foreign owned infotainment out of the discussion I have found that some of my local newspapers skew the news so far towards their favorite political party that if you compare one of their articles to it’s wire source you will find, not just sentences, but entire relevant paragraphs chock full of pertinent information have been omitted from the final printed piece. Editorial slant. There’s the rub.
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For my husband, I think it wasn’t the slant so much as the requirement that he (the reporter) be more important than the story (aka, da nooz). He didn’t know how. Literally didn’t know how to put himself in the center of a story. He learned news in the Edward R. Murrow school and suddenly, everything changed. He was not agile enough to change. Many of us found ourselves suddenly out of step and obsolete. You don’t even have to be old. Standards are changing so fast … disappearing entirely at the speed of light.
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I’m not much of a newspaper person, but do enjoy the local news on TV and also PBS Newshour. In other news, I just want to make sure you received the email I sent over the weekend. My gmail account is acting totally wonky. If you did, great and no rush in getting back to me, I know I have been a bit out of touch. If you didn’t get it though, let me know and I will try again. Technology keeps failing me, it would seem.
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I did get a message from you and I answered it. Did you not get it? Let me go back to my sent file and see where it went. Sometimes the address book picks up an old address from who knows what old data file buried in its memory.
Nope. Didn’t get an email. I got a comment from your blog (I follow your comments) — but no email. Can you resend? Please?
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I love the feel and ‘experience’ of reading a print newspaper…. #oldschool 😊
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I love the smell of newsprint, but I’m so up to my eyeballs in paper — books, newspapers, magazines, manuals — I’m very happy to not have to deal with it.
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Yep…. lots of that here, too…. I tend to balance my time between print & digital. Love them each for different reasons. Would be less clutter w/out print, though. Lofty goal, indeed. 😊
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There was a time when honor in journalism was prevalent as well as common sense. Unfortunately, both are uncommon these days. To get a less biased view on our nation’s news, we watch BBC. Our Los Angeles newspapers have celebrated the golem called Trump by giving him free publicity every issue. I’d appreciate not having to look at his picture almost daily.
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I keep hoping neutral, impartial reporting will return to fashion. I may happen, eventually. This stuff runs in cycles. Whether or not any real newspapers will survive by then is anyone’s guess. I think Garry left the business just in time. There’s NO way he could deal with the news (??) is done these days.
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I hope you are right, and I think Garry would go bonkers if he had to deal with the way the business is now.
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Oh, I know he would. He knows too. After 40 years in the business, he doesn’t miss it. It’s not the business he knew and loved. Today it’s all twitter feeds and self-promotion. He would hate it.
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We get the paper delivered everyday. It keeps us both up to date on what’s going on.
Leslie
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We used to get two papers daily, but out here in the boonies, they left the paper up in the puddles and snowdrifts 200 feet up the drive. Garry goes out and buys them. At least that way they are readable when we get them.
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I always read the news on two apps on my iPad. When I was married we just to get a real paper. So my ex decided one day it was time to save that money so I canceled it. I got up on the first paperless day. There he was at the table twiddling his thumbs – he was the one who really needed the real deal. He was annoyed that there was no paper. I had a good laugh.
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Garry usually buys a paper every day. It’s his “indulgence.” Sometimes two on Sunday. But, if the weather is bad or he’s too tired to haul himself to wherever papers are sold, he knows how to find his way around the Internet news sites. I think in the end it isn’t the medium. It really IS the message.
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I would say it is sad that newspapers are going the way of the dodo bird, but the way ‘news’ is reported nowadays in its alarmist, speculative, gossipy fashion, I can’t really work up a tear.
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I’m hoping “real” news will make a comeback. We need some impartial truth in our world.
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I don’t really bother with the newspapers today. To much sensationalism and too little serious reports. Switzerland has no real news, none that would fill more that a page or two, so we borrow it from the other countries but in a nice way, civilised and with the facts. I like my news online. I can pick and choose. Every morning I look in on SFR on my iPad. It is the Swiss online news, serious and with just the main headlines. I can choose my reports and don’t have them forced on me with glaring headlines and journalistic photos which are overdone.
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With the election on overdrive here, we have been watching and reading much more news than normal. I think that’s probably the only positive thing to come out of this dreadful election. And, when the fury dies down, people will stop following the news again.
Garry likes reading the sports sections of real newspapers. he likes to relax and more or less memorize the standings and scores. But both of us use the computer for news, too. There’s room in the world for both. I hope.
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Irony reigns with the Donald amping up my interest in politics. Sports is still numero uno. Followed by obits, entertainment, op ed and front pages scan.
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