I work at a shop that used to sell more than a dozen kinds of newspapers, both daily papers and weekend editions; now there are three newspapers that deliver a handful of Sunday editions each, most of which are returned to the publisher for a refund at the end of the week. I can count the number of papers we sell in a week on one hand.

I understand that subscriptions have also gone down. The local newspaper no longer prints a daily paper, and the Sunday edition is loaded with ads.

Do you read newspapers? How has your reading of them changed with time? Do you subscribe to newspapers online?

43 comments

  2. I miss newspapers. Haven’t read one in a daily basis in about 25 years, but I still miss them.

  3. I have a Seattle Times Sunday subscription but often don’t get around to actually reading it.

  4. I subscribe to the digital editions of three newspapers. I started this after I realized just how much the online ad-supported content we call news is just outrage fuel used to sell ads (remember that if you aren’t paying for the product, *you’re the product*). And then we elected someone that had a vendetta with the news and I discovered the value of journalism and realized just how much of that online content wasn’t written by actual investigative journalists. It’s literally just content farms at this point.

    Support journalism!

  5. I grew up on them. Start my day with the NYT everyday.
    We have a local weekly paper in Mass that lists the towns police calls, events, sports, honor students.

  6. I was a writer for the high school paper for a year. I guess it was a reasonable diversion. I don’t remember much about it. I assume I was just writing articles about Otis Spunkmeyer cookie sales, the performance of the girl’s basketball team, and other typical high school things.

    My parents had a subscription to the “local” newspaper – we were in a rural area about 20 minutes out from the town where that paper was written. On Sundays, I’d ask for the comics or on occasion, the sports section. The New York Times was made available for free at various places around the college I went to so I’d pick one up on occasion when killing time between classes.

    From time to time I think “maybe I should get a Sun-Times or Tribune subscription” but I never do.

  9. I have a digital subscription to the New York Times and my local paper. Honestly I have the local subscription primarily just to support that paper because it helps hold local politicians accountable.

  10. I am vaguely annoyed that they dump a “newspaper” consisting entirely of adds on my driveway now and then.

    Never had a subscription or any interest in one.

  11. I pick up USA today if the hotel has free copies. Too busy worrying about not having a house to worry about not having a newspaper subscription. Also when would I have time to read a whole newspaper?

  13. I subscribe to the NYT and we used to also have a Washington Post subscription but it got really expensive. We want to support good journalism but not at a cost of $25 or $30 a month. I flip though my local free paper for the hyper local content, wale the crime blotter which is occasionally hilarious. We did buy physical copies of a couple papers when Trump was impeached the first time. Just as a keepsake.

  14. I subscribe to the local business journal. It comes with a physical weekly paper and website is updated daily. There is no “digital only” package.

    I also do the digital subscription for the daily paper. Its honestly a trivial amount.

  15. Last time I read one, maybe my early 20s? Hardly even remember. Never subscribed to them personally.

  17. I read everything online and via apps. I get a lot of subscription alerts to my work email and I’ll pick and read articles when they’re interesting.

  19. Newspapers are surprisingly still relatively popular in MN. When I first moved here thats what surprised me. My millennial roommates actually read the Pioneer Press and other papers. And these werent like nerdy individuals by any means… Typical Midwest party girls in their late 20s at the time lol One of them even used to be a cheerleader.

    I read them from time to time. Its kinda nice to just disengage from our digital newsfeed and kick it old school

  22. I haven’t read them in maybe 10 or 12 years now. I used to read them in the breakroom at my job at the time. They were already kinda dying, but they were sitting there, and smartphones weren’t amazing yet

  23. I was like the biggest newspaper fan for 20 years!

    Had to call it off though. I sometimes get called abroad for “international emergencies”, and I don’t have time to spend like a bazillion hours on the phone putting a pause on my subscription!

  24. I miss true local papers. Our “local” paper is owned by USA Today, so there is maybe two true local articles and everything else is just what’s in every other USA Today paper.

  26. I worked for one for 24 years, in the bindery, circulation, shipping, advertising, commercial printing, and accounting departments (not at the same time!). I was one of the last to take voluntary severance when we were about to go through a corporate merger for the 2nd time in a few years. I don’t get the local paper. I do subscribe to the WaPo online.

  27. I live where they don’t deliver newspapers. I can’t get major papers within a 45 minutes drive of my house. People say the app is better. It’s not.

    One of my favorite things on sundays was reading the paper, tearing out things that were interesting, saving parts for later in the week, getting all of the magazines and funnies…

    If I had a store where it was available, I’d buy it at least weekly if not daily.

  28. My parents still get the San Diego Union Tribune delivered to their driveway. I just subscribe to The NY Times (including the cooking section) online.

  29. I think most people don’t realize that what really killed newspapers was Craigslist. Newspapers made a shitload of money off of the classified ads.

  30. I just remember my nana got the newspaper when i was a kid and I’d only go to look for the Funnies every Sunday. That’s it. And I don’t want to pay for it so I stopped reading the funnies after moving.

  31. I worked at a 7-11 in Trenton NJ in the early 90s. I worked the graveyard shift (11PM-7AM) for a time. Every weekday morning we received:

    Trenton Times

    Trentonian

    Newark Star Ledger

    Philadephia Inquirer

    Philadelphia Daily News

    NY Daily News

    NY Times

    NY Post

    Daily Racing Form.

    We sold a lot of papers, and I read as many as I had time to before the morning rush.

    Sundays, I am pretty sure we didn’t get ALL of them, but still most, and I had to put them together. We got the inserts a day or two early, and the news / sports on Sunday morning.

  32. I’m an older millennial. So I remember back in the day when newspapers were popular. My family had a subscription to the daily local paper and the New York times.

    By the time I cared about the news in the early 2000s in college TV and the Internet were how I got my news. I’ve never personally had a news paper subscription or read one for the news (just the funnies).

    Newspapers these days are just sad.

  34. I subscribe (edit: digital subscription) to quite a few newspapers (NY Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, and a couple smaller ones). I also subscribe to a few news and culture magazines. There’s a lot of great journalism out there and I don’t expect to read it for free.

  36. I used to read the little comics and my grandma with crosswords. Not really anymore tho.

  37. When I was a kid, my family got the Sunday edition of our local paper, and I often read parts of it. I was pretty interested in print journalism at the time. At one point, I was involved in a program for future journalists that was done by that paper.

    ​

    Now, I can’t remember the last time I read a physical newspaper. For a while, we were subscribed to the Los Angeles Times, but we cancelled it because whoever was supposed to deliver it in our apartment complex wasn’t doing their job.

    ​

    I pretty much exclusively get my news online these days, and but I don’t pay for any online news subscriptions.

  38. I worked at a television news station where we received a physical subscription for a portion of the time I worked there. We eventually canceled the physical subscription and kept the digital subscription. We rarely even used the digital subscription since in our market, we and other TV stations were quicker to get on a story.

  39. I read national publications online regularly. I also keep up with my hometown newspaper that miraculously still circulates Mon-Fri, which is trending toward being more unusual in towns of that size.

  40. I used to get the local paper delivered only on Sunday’s, haven’t gotten it in well over 10 years now.

    I live in a 55+ community and get up quite early during the workday. Most people here don’t get a daily paper! I was a little shocked at that.

  41. My parents buy and read two newspapers every morning, Sing Tao and the World Journal. They used to have a subscription to the World Journal but stopped after they kept getting no paper or somehow randomly get the wrong paper; one time they got a Greek paper, or a copy of the Wall Street Journal, etc. They also get copies for my aunt who picks them up from my mother. My mother is a hoarder who loves getting newspapers.

    The New York Times is technically my local paper. I try to read the Times and WSJ online, I do not care for the Post and occasionally browse the Daily News. I might browse other papers online and I have not purchased a physical paper in many years. NYC used to have many more newspapers until the 1962-63 newspaper strike and changes in technology put them out of business.

  42. Used to buy a paper every day but it’s gone from $1 a paper to $2.99 per paper. So now maybe once every few months. They’re pricing themselves out of business.

Leave a Reply
You May Also Like