Do you folks realize that "The Washington Post" costs 75 cents weekdays now, while a copy of "USA Today" is a full buck? This would be way too much even if the newspapers WEREN'T shrinking, both in quality (due to personnel attrition through buyouts of veteran talent and layoffs, as well as other cost-cutting measures) and in size (Thinner sections and even physically shrinking the dimensions of the newspaper, as the "Baltimore Sun" just did).
Whenever I visit my parents over the holidays, my mother--who is the best, by the way--often indulges my newspaper habit by picking me up a stack at the store. This past year, I was shocked at how much even the small locals were, let alone the national tabloids. My habit is becoming almost like smoking--increasingly expensive and decreasingly practiced.
It's a death spiral, with newspapers making themselves less appealing to loyal readers while somehow trying to capture the new or disloyal ones. I love newspapers and I've had a habit of looking at a daily rag or two for decades now (OK, I'm not that old, but "decades" is kind of dramatic, so I'm going with it because more than one decade=decades). When I moved down to the greater DC metro area, I thought one of the coolest things about living here was access to an affordable subscription to the "Post." What had been an expensive occasional Sunday treat back home was now a part of my daily routine.
Now, though, the paper I loved is no more. The end of the stand-alone "Book World" section on Sundays is just the latest in a line of moves that have decimated all the things that made the paper unique. I don't care if I can get similar (or the same) content on the Internet. I spend too much time on computers already; I want a newspaper I can hold in my hands, lay out on the floor or table, and throw in a pile until my wife yells at me for not recycling it quickly enough.
I want that newspaper every day, and I want SEVERAL on Fridays, for the movie reviews, and several more on Sundays for all the Sunday-only features, but not at the prices they're charging nowadays. Besides, those features are on the way out, leaving less and less to justify overpaying at the local grocery store. The "Post" is raising its subscription rates, and that's just another good reason to say good-bye when my current term expires.
That said, if I could pay a quarter a day, I'd be tempted to stick around. As long as there are the comic strips, the Sunday ads (although Circuit City is out of business and Best Buy has given up in my area, making it harder to hunt for DVD bargains), and the entertaining sports columnists, there will be content in a newspaper for me to enjoy. But not at these prices.
Whenever I visit my parents over the holidays, my mother--who is the best, by the way--often indulges my newspaper habit by picking me up a stack at the store. This past year, I was shocked at how much even the small locals were, let alone the national tabloids. My habit is becoming almost like smoking--increasingly expensive and decreasingly practiced.
It's a death spiral, with newspapers making themselves less appealing to loyal readers while somehow trying to capture the new or disloyal ones. I love newspapers and I've had a habit of looking at a daily rag or two for decades now (OK, I'm not that old, but "decades" is kind of dramatic, so I'm going with it because more than one decade=decades). When I moved down to the greater DC metro area, I thought one of the coolest things about living here was access to an affordable subscription to the "Post." What had been an expensive occasional Sunday treat back home was now a part of my daily routine.
Now, though, the paper I loved is no more. The end of the stand-alone "Book World" section on Sundays is just the latest in a line of moves that have decimated all the things that made the paper unique. I don't care if I can get similar (or the same) content on the Internet. I spend too much time on computers already; I want a newspaper I can hold in my hands, lay out on the floor or table, and throw in a pile until my wife yells at me for not recycling it quickly enough.
I want that newspaper every day, and I want SEVERAL on Fridays, for the movie reviews, and several more on Sundays for all the Sunday-only features, but not at the prices they're charging nowadays. Besides, those features are on the way out, leaving less and less to justify overpaying at the local grocery store. The "Post" is raising its subscription rates, and that's just another good reason to say good-bye when my current term expires.
That said, if I could pay a quarter a day, I'd be tempted to stick around. As long as there are the comic strips, the Sunday ads (although Circuit City is out of business and Best Buy has given up in my area, making it harder to hunt for DVD bargains), and the entertaining sports columnists, there will be content in a newspaper for me to enjoy. But not at these prices.
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