The print versions are good for puppy potties, the online versions ad-filled and clunky slow because of it. But the old line investigative reporters and opinion molders are priceless. Witness your brave reporters who reported the local defense department crooks, got banned form their premises, and saw their work go for naught as good old boy letters set the felons free to rob again. Wasting scarce investigative dollars along the way.

Bias is in the eyes of the beholders. It seems to me plenty of conservatives are allowed to dominate these blogs. Plenty of anti-liberal bias in the PD pages. (it’s funny how they keep coming back if it is so bad, you’d think Fox News would keep them busy enough) My grandfather had to encourage newspapers to print retractions after he was called a communist for his union organizing back when you could get killed for even thought of being one. So what you print DOES have consequences, and should be as factual as possible.

I’ve watched many who dropped out of school get their education reading newspapers, and they are often better informed than college grads staying isolated in ivory towers. Many of you working here have become very familiar to us becuse of your quirks and personalitites. Even those I don’t agre with I would miss if they were gone.

Absolutely. My morning paper–though late more often than not–is just as much a part of my day as my cup of coffee. My mind needs the stimulation, and I don’t always have the time to watch the news or get on line.

Mr. Greenbaum - I used to really enjoy getting the newspaper. I love to read and I try to educate myself on what is going on in the world. I much prefer to do that with the print edition. Yet, the PD (as evidenced by your response to my post) doesn’t really care why they are losing subscriptions. I had a subscription for years and finally cancelled as the news seemed to go by the wayside in favor of opinions. Did anyone from the PD ask WHY I was cancelling. No. Didn’t care (although I did receive call after annoying call to resubscribe for the longest time). I’m telling you the WHY (and I am definately not the only one), but you all are so hard-headed you will not listen to your readers and are going to make yourself irrelavant. What a shame.

Absolutely. My morning paper–though my subscription is late more often than not–is just as much a part of my day as my cup of coffee. My mind needs the stimulation, and I don’t always have the time to watch the news or get on line.

I’m trying not to laugh Kurt at your trying to not hear about the bias at the PD. That train left the station long ago and is just a given in this town and does have a lot to do with the number of cancellations since President Bush has been in office; however, here is my real comment:

Yes, yes, yes! I would truly miss the print PD and so would my mother.
I am a 7-days-a-week paid subscriber with a wonderful delivery person who has my paper in my driveway around 4:45AM. I get my coffee and turn on MSNBC and read the entire paper minus the Sports section which my spouse reads.

I have been begging the PD not to be so biased for the last 8 years so that it doesn’t go under. I feel that all my work may have been in vain. I spend a lot of time researching the news on-line and love not having to do so early in the morning to read my local paper.

I would not miss the print version. I get all of my news online, and I prefer it that way not only because it saves time, but also because it is more eco-friendly.

Someone in a previous post referred to people in my age group participating in the “dumbing down of America”. This is naive. I am very well informed, and so are many of my friends. Just because we choose to read our news online instead of via “print news” does not make us “dumb”. I am interested in both hard news and pop culture, and I am smart enough to have opinions on both. Newspapers are the casette tapes of the news world. They have become obsolete, and when the baby boomer generation starts dying off in large numbers, so will the print papers. Also, the unwillingess of print papers to change with the times will ensure their downfall. That’s just the way the cookie crumbles.

I would definatly miss the paper in print form and worry about the continuance of “free press” in this country. You can argue that the news media is all biased anyway, and I find a majority of this to be true. That being said, I believe the industry can survive if it were to change it’s business model slightly. It is true that the internet and increasng number of broadcast options available deliver content in a faster manner, however the power a physical copy of the paper has is unbelievable. The industry needs to report fact based news as it always has, but actuall needs to expand it’s offering to include more public comments. Instead of competing with the internet, it needs to publish the comments posted in these rooms in it’s print edition. The opinion based reporting needs to be limited to a specific section of the paper, the main sections being FACT only. I have sold newspaper subscriptions in all sections of the country over the last 2 years and hear the same reasons given for people to drop over and over. The newspaper industry is in serious decline and the only was to recover is to listen to the reasons for such decline and adjust. Anyone viewing this is welcome to contact me, I’d love to be a part of the solution.

Clipper: I think if you’ve read this blog regularly, you’d acknowledge that I leave myself and our newspaper open to criticism pretty frequently. And I try to address it when it comes up. I also note that we do the same on our Editors’ Desk blog.

My only concern about attributing The Downfall of Newspapers to some perceived liberal bias is that it doesn’t make sense to me. There are newspapers that are perceived to have a conservative/pro-business bias as well. They, too, are facing the same economic challenges.

Those challenges seem to have more to do with the economics of the industry than these perceived editorial biases. They’re issues such as classified advertising moving online; the consolidation in the retail industry; and the myriad of ways consumers get their news.

But if the prevailing opinion is that liberal bias is killing the newspaper industry, I reckon that’s as legitimate an issue as the economics. Perception, as they say, is reality.

“So is news important to you? Would you miss the newspaper if it stopped publishing?”

Yes to both. The sad thing is, paper mills and trees notwithstanding, the daily newspaper is gradually disappearing. It has been since I was a child, so for the past 60+ years.

The demands put on the newspaper are not the same as the 24/7 televised/broadcast news stations/channels. At their best local or regional newspapers provide calendars, summaries, and investigative reporting germane to the readers. However, until there is 100% connectivity in every community, newspapers will not disappear.

It does mean that the daily newspaper will eventually morph into something that embodies both the on-line world and print world.

Besides, how could one do the crossword puzzle while sitting on the pot — a lap top may not be the thing.

I get the paper on Sunday once in a while for the coupons, I like to browse the ads, and once in a while my comments in this forum were printed. I cancelled my subscription to the Post Democrat a few years ago because, for the most part, everything printed in it I already had read on-line the day before.

So I wouldn’t miss it if it were gone. Printed news is eventually going to go the way of the typewriter and the quill/inkwell.