I love reading the newspaper..always have…always will. I do get frustrated with the bias of the PD..but I have learned to skim over the BS editorials in the so-called news stories. I’ll always prefer to sit out on my lanai with my coffee and newspaper on Saturday and Sunday mornings (when it’s cool). Sitting out with my laptop on my lap just wouldn’t be the same.

As a print journalist for almost 40 years and someone who read three newspapers every day as recently as two years ago, I feel the gap that the newspapers leave as they try to make up the eroding revenue stream.

There is a tactile experience that it is difficult to replicate online. The “new” Newsweek (see blog link) recognizes that readers are looking for “a good read”. They want the news when they go to print, but they want MORE.

Which newspaper? I subscribe to a number of newspapers which come on good ol’ newsprint in the mail, and I love them. I read about a half dozen papers from all over Missouri every week. The P-D? Well, I don’t subscribe though I do still buy one at the store especially the Sunday paper. Don’t subscribe because my lifestyle is such they would just pile up and announce “nobody’s home.”
I used to read the Tri-County Journal every week, but then it got thinner and thinner, and Lee Ent. asked for subscription money for what was by then basically only an ad sheet. Then, they dropped my paper entirely, so I couldn’t read one even if I wanted to.
Specialized newspapers are doing OK, even in this economy. It’s because they have in depth information people want to know…newspapers cannot beat the Net or broadcast media on speed, but they used to be able to beat them on depth of thoughtful coverage, presented in a neat package (Sure, the Net can boast wider coverage. But with every Joshua or Ashley out there throwing in 2 cents, it is neither accurate, nor reasoned, nor reliable for the most part. I don’t believe the adage that Wiki drives out bad information. Look at all the format and verifiability rules the wikis have had to install. Sounds um, just like a newspaper.)
There is nothing sacred about newsprint and ink. But it sure smells good, and takes less electricity per copy than the average home computer. Besides, paper towels are too expensive to use as packing material.

Never.

Tom… Where did you work as a print journalist?

I agree with Tom about the tactile factor. Last fall, I attended a reunion at the Collinsville bureau of the Belleville News-Democrat, which was being closed. At one point, someone said print versions of newspapers had gone to their grave. I said I didn’t believe they had. I argued that there was at least one generation — if not two — that still desired them, that they had been conditioned to the feel of a printed newspaper. Sure, it’s a much smaller market, but there’s still money to be made.

EJ,

I worked for the Edwardsville Intelligencer and interned for the Rockford Morning Star in the newspaper world. For the last 32 years I have been the publisher of St. Louis Construction News (CNR). I also owned Club Management, Resort Management and Painting and Wallcovering Contractor magazines, which were sold in 2007 – part of the brave new world for print pubs.

Nope and you will have to pry it from my (and my mom’s)cold dead hands or until the PD folds, which after today’s paper, may not be long. Hardly worth the $1.
I am not even sure you should refer to the P-D as a “NEWS”paper any longer.
How about a community periodical instead.

I love getting my paper delivered at 4:15 AM and read it shortly thereafter.

……….Our weekend would not be the same without a trip to the grocer for the Sunday Post-Dispatch (and some danish). We don’t subscribe to the paper for the same reason stated by Elaine, I don’t want it piling up in the driveway when we are out of town.

” am not even sure you should refer to the P-D as a “NEWS”paper any longer.
How about a community periodical instead”—Centrist—

More like a daily leftist talking points-bulletin…

Though still read everyday, and subscribe, as it’s the best daily comedy out here locally.

“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer”—Abraham Lincoln
circa-1859.