Would you miss newspapers if they stopped publishing?
I might be sorry for starting this topic in the Talk of the Day. But we’ll see. I predict I will get a lot of people ranting about the “liberal bias” in the media. I’m hopeful that regardless of how you feel about the Post-Dispatch, you might appreciate the role newspapers try to play in our democracy and respond from that point of view.
But, as you have heard, the news out of the newspaper industry hasn’t been great lately.
- The Chicago Tribune’s parent Tribune Co. filed for bankruptcy protection.
- The New York Times Company is borrowing about a quarter billion bucks against its new Manhattan building.
- The Detroit newspapers — The Free-Press and the News — might cut home delivery most days.
- The Christian Science Monitor has announced it will stop printing a print newspaper, just as the Capital Times in Madison, Wisc., has.
And those are just some of the relatively recent developments. My colleague, Erica Smith, has documented the loss of jobs at news organizations on her blog, Paper Cuts.
Now, if you’re here, reading this blog, it tells me that you care about news. Otherwise, you’d be wasting your time doing something else from your office computer right now. So is news important to you? Would you miss the newspaper if it stopped publishing?
Kurt has been an editor at the Post-Dispatch since August 2002, working on both STLtoday and the newspaper. He's been a journalist since 1982, covering municipal government, courts, education and two hurricanes as a reporter before becoming an editor. 
I prefer the print edition of a newspaper. However, as this newspaper became more of an OPINION piece than NEWSpaper, I cancelled my subscription. Why PAY to read something I disagree with when I can skim for the real news online for free?
If this newspaper would concentrate on reporting facts and leave the lecturing and smug opinions out of it, I would most definitely resubscribe.
OK…I really need to step in here and try and set the tone. If you want another topic where you can complain about the Post-Dispatch, I will happily create it…but I’d really like us to stick to the topic here. Please.
Yes, I would miss it. For all that I often disagree with editorial stances, newspapers remain the best way to get relatively objective reporting in any kind of depth (even though budget cutbacks are making reporting more shallow). Television news is unbelievably shallow. I prefer to receive a newspaper rather than read it online, because it is much easier on my eyes, and quicker and easier to navigate.
News is very important to me. I spend a lot of time each day reading news sites on the Internet, including STLToday. No longer do I have to brush ink off of my hands, throw away stacks of used newsprint, or try to turn to page 8 while sitting next to someone on the Metrolink.
Yes, I would definitely miss the newspapers. I like to read the paper at leisure and come back to it later if necessary. It is too difficult to read the news online.
Yes, at the coffee shop I frequent. Fortunately, it doesn’t have wi-fi, so, those people plugging away at their laptops must be writers. Good news for the PD: the vending box in front of the store is frequently empty.
Kurt,
I’ve seriously wrestled with this. Would I miss newspapers - including the Post-Dispatch?
News IS very important to me. One of the joys of my life is to sit in my living room in the morning and read the newspaper - which is FAR preferable over sitting in front of a computer or television ‘viewing’ the news.
Yet, I’m still smarting from the lack of REAL investigative coverage of substance on President-elect Obama who, I sincerely believe, received a free ride from the national media from beginning to end…
…while that same media couldn’t WAIT to go to Alaska and dig up every expense report of Sarah Palin they could find, every grainy video of church service/beauty pageant that she was in, report every heinous rumor whether it resembled an ounce of truth or not (and almost ALL of it was NOT the truth).
It was truly disgusting to observe - and the Post-Dispatch picked up ALL of these stories, wrote numerous editorials (Eric Mink/editorial board) that reflected this stunning bias. How ANYONE could deny this is beyond me…and I predict four years of continued fawning coverage for this man.
But, back to your original question…would I miss the newspaper (or choose not to subscribe?)
It has nothing to do with having other avenues of accessibility to information.
Although, yes, I would miss the newspaper (and/or choose not to subscribe) but because of the reasons I’ve noted above…
…I simply have NO trust in what you all do any more…and I’m saddened by that.
I would say that (having grown up with the mindset of being paperless) I would prefer to read the paper online. I do realize that if the paper did cease to exist, many people would lose their jobs. I wouldn’t want that to happen, so, to each his own, but I would much rather skim over the details online. I really don’t have the time at morning/night to read the newspaper.
I guess everyone else (Clipper) can go to Fox news online and read over the “facts.”
Miss the Post with all of it’s Democratic views?? NO
Kurt:
I depends by what you mean by “stop publishing”. If the paper were to fold, I would miss it greatly. Having said that, We buy only the Sunday paper, and have done so for years, and we only get that for the coupons. Even on Sunday, I tend to read the paper online.
I’m an IT guy, and I find it easier to read the online version than the print version. I also like that on stltoday.com stories get updated as they develop. The time lag between writing, editing, printing and delivering is probably a newspaper’s biggest competitive disadvantage.