The circulation data is clear: Fewer people are taking the daily newspaper in the United States. Readers and, increasingly, advertisers are moving online.
As online journalists, many of us straddle both worlds. Many of us work for newspaper-dot-coms; others at least started their careers in print.
Are any of us still reading the “dead tree edition?” If so, how many newspapers a day are you reading? And how many did you read a decade ago?
Journalists, one might presume, ought to be the biggest fans and consumers of journalism. Can online journalists, folks at leading edge of industry change, still be counted on to take the print edition? Or have we bailed on print, too?
Tell us in the comments which papers you still read in print, and which you would recommend. Or, if you are not reading papers in print, tell us what might help you change your mind and subscribe to a print newspaper in the future.
About Robert Niles
I would read a local weekly stuffed with enterprise and investigative reporting about topics ranging from race to immigration, non-profits to religion, arts to music, education to adult learning and informational graphics that sort out complex subjects with multiple points of view — and fill in a lot more blanks.
I get all my national/international news and commentary (in two languages!) from sites around the world. And I get a lot of it. What I’m starved for is local reporting that goes beyond nuts and bolts and who shot whom last night. I’d read it in any medium but would prefer digital.
Mike Phillips
Retired E.W. Scripps editor, corporate type
I still enjoy reading the LA Times because I run across stories I would otherwise miss looking online. And I read the Long Beach Press Telegram because it covers the area where I work. I haven’t found a good alternative that covers where I live.
BUT… more and more I am reading stuff I saw online or heard on radio (mostly NPR) a day or two earlier. I would drop the Press-Telegram because of its poor delivery record and I could get by without the Times’ print edition if the coffee shop I frequent would just install wifi. I still like to read while I eat breakfast, though I’d be perfectly happy to do so online. And I think I would bump up my reading to at least four newspapers on a regular basis if that were the case.
I read the Chicago Tribune every day, though I usually read it online first because another family member takes it to work. I find when I read the print copy, I find items I’ve missed in the online version.
I don’t subscribe to the local suburban dailies at all. I read the online versions of many newspapers.
I’m so sorry fellows, but i can’t believe that a person can read an entire journal during all day! why do people buy something that they can’t use completely?! i am an advertising professional and a comunicator student, but i think newspaper haven’t nothing really important to read: politcs lies and robbering, mediatic person’s scandals, urban violence chaos, etc. No, thanks, i didn’t need these issues. Ithink nobody needs.
In my case the drop from two “paper papers” daily to one was the result of a geographical move almost as much as the Internet. I used to live in Elkridge, MD, within the circulation areas of both the Baltimore Sun and the Washington Post. Now I live in Bradenton, Florida, where the two closest (chain-owned) papers are poor at national and international news and, really, not very competent at local news.
So I subscribe to the Bradenton Herald, but really get most of my news online. And, frankly, if the Herald doesn’t start stepping up local coverage instead of getting progressively *worse* at it, I will no doubt drop that subscription before long…
I voted for the poll and found that I am part of the miniscule percentage that read four or more papers, and were reading three or more in 1998. I am a print journalist based in Mumbai, India. I read papers to see what others have put out. In 1998, it was the pro-establishment Times of India, and ant-establishment Indian Express along with one regional language newspaper, and a eveninger in the train. In 2008, I am reading the Times of India (TOI), Hindustan Times, the Indian Express, TOI’s free paper Mumbai Mirror along with two regional papers. Apart from this staple of papers at home, I pick up Daily News Analysis, a morninger, and Mid-Day, an eveninger, during the office commute. In the office, I read three regional language dailies including one political mouthpiece of a trouble making party. Phew! I feel obsolete.
Yes I still read newspapers. Every one cannot afford the time or money for a personal computer. I vist the library where i can spend time on a computer. I use to read 4 newspapers a day back in the 90’s. Looking for jobs searching for news on issues that concerned me and mine. I see less using and buying of newspapers and also the postal service is not being used like it use to be. I also submit that the computer will make newspapers an postal service and telephone business not a monopoly anymore. people can communicate faster and cheaper. Yes I still read newspapers but not as much as I use to.