Buying Newspapers

How many of you still buy newspapers?

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

During the last few years of working at home I have more or less stopped buying daily newspapers. If I need one I have to go out to get one and I just can't be bothered. I get Sunday papers delivered but I tend to read all the daily news online.

Is this common?

Note: this is a bored Friday post from BDW who is in a business lull.

[lawman]

Do you take your laptop into the loo?

[zulu_dude]

Don't buy them daily, but will buy at least one paper every weekend... normally the Sunday Times as it's got enough material to keep me occupied through most of afternoon and several cups of coffee!

[wyweb]

I couldn't start my morning without it. Coffee and the newspaper. Really, it's like a religion with me.

[Old_Honky]

I'm a Sun reader (no not for page 3 reasons)for two reasons; it has well written concise articles and news stories without the usual political bias assumed by other papers (eg. the right wing Mail and the left wing Mirror) and it has "Striker" the best cartoon strip ever.

I refused to buy broadsheet style papers because they obviously don't care how easy to use their product is, now most have gone tabloid that doesn't apply but some like the Times are too big and full of supplements that don't appeal to me. After a long day I can sit down quietly with a nice cup of coffee and the Sun and in half an hour I've read it cover to cover (skiping any references to reality TV, Amy Wino and that Docherty person of course)

[wheel]

Newspapers are still part of my morning rituals. Read it with my coffee every morning. I'd prefer a better paper than the local rag (it's a complete POS) but at least I get the dilbert cartoon every day.

[vincevincevince]

The paper here costs a fortune and only arrives once a week. Even then it's either some American publication or an international version of the Express, so you'll understand why I just log on and read online.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

skiping any references to reality TV, Amy Wino and that Docherty person of course

Is this possible in the Sun? ;)

[grandpa]

I bought a newspaper yesterday, first one in a while since it's a sixteen mile round trip. I've read every word, and now it is fated to one of the secondary uses of newsprint.

1) Cleans glass like nothing else.
2) Good to wrap stones and minerals.
3) Makes a great fire starter in the wood stove or the burn pit.

When I can't get a paper, there are two online sources that I use to get a broad spectrum of news. Just try to get either one of them to clean a window.

[SEOMike]

I don't read the paper. I used to get it delivered but I got so sick of all the advertisements and the other crap that came in it that I just started recycling it without reading it. I figured that was kind of a waste so I canceled it. I continued the Sunday paper but when that hit 25 pounds I canceled it too. :) The only time I read a paper is when I'm traveling and I get a free USA TODAY at my hotel door. It has far fewer inserts and goes pretty well with a continental breakfast.

[jatar_k]

have it delivered every day, read through, do the crossword

I do look online as well but I enjoy my daily paper

[ken_b]

We subscribe to one daily paper, and I usually buy one or two others when I'm out during the weekdays.

When I travel, I always try and get a copy of the local paper each day.

[The_Hat]

I am a subscriber to my local daily newspaper. However, I work in that papers online department and subscription to print is a condition of employment.

[LifeinAsia]

I couldn't start my morning without it. Coffee and the newspaper. Really, it's like a religion with me.

Ditto that. Newspaper is much forgiving than a laptop when you spill coffee (or breakfast) on it.

On the other hand, much of the "news" I see in the morning paper I'd already read the day before on cnn.com.

[jsinger]

I just let my 20+ year subscription to the Wall Street Journal lapse. Really felt guilty about that.

I always disdained people who didn't read at least one paper daily. But I didn't have time to read the huge WSJ anymore and could get most of the same info online. House was too cluttered.

Still get our local daily.

Interesting topic to me.

[ronin]

I buy a copy of The Economist 2-3 times a month.

I don't generally buy a daily newspaper unless it has a particularly eyecatching feature in it which I want to get hold of.

If I'm travelling into central London on a morning I will pick up and read through Metro and likewise with thelondonpaper if I'm going into or coming out of central london in the evening.

Otherwise I just stick to news I read online plus C4 News plus Newsnight and whatever BBC Bulletins I catch.

[Rugles]

I have stopped buying newspapers on a regular basis only in the last 6 months. It used to get 2 a day.

I found that the news was stale to me and I would be skipping over so many articles because I already knew the content of the articles from reading it online. It was a pointless excercise.

I am a news junkie so it kind of shocks me that I am out of the newspaper habit.

[edited by: Rugles at 9:04 pm (utc) on Nov. 9, 2007]

[vincevincevince]

I remember predictions of the self-print newspaper. You were going to wake up in the morning to the daily rag freshly arrived from your newspaper printing machine, having been transmitted to your modem during the night.

With the price reductions in large-format printing and a return to continuous feed paper this might be an idea who's time might yet come.

[Essex_boy]

it has well written concise articles and news stories - for 12 year olds.

Errrm are you sure its the Sun?

I buy the Daily Telegraph, yep I do get sick of their political bias and yes they do pick on the smallest points and blow them out of all proportion but I love reading the editoral and letters pages.

They have great coverage of the arts and horse racing.

[Habtom]

I couldn't start my morning without it.

My morning starts just fine without them. What do newspapers carry these days? Bad news.

And no, I can't start my day with them anymore.

[Monkey]

What ever newspaper is left on the train.....is what I read!
Mainly the sport pages

[Lexur]

I stopped to buy newspapers because not just we all have the .com version but because we (small news site) have the same news sources (means agencies) and find the same content in a wide range of sites.

When I come back home I watch the news in the TV and again I know what will be the main header and sometimes I've selected the same for my homepage.

[iamlost]

I pick-up the local weekly to learn what my neighbours have been up to.

The 'big' newspapers are so behind the news cycle without adding value, i.e. background, and so biased that you know their 'take' on any given issue without bothering to buy it...

I do buy numerous trade magazines that cater to my site niches - tracking advertising and advertisers...

[jbinbpt]

Sunday Times... A habit I picked up in college. Tried my best to get the kids to read it to no avail.

[Rosalind]

I have a cat, so I do still buy the odd newspaper when the free papers run out. I do read them when I buy them, but if it weren't for their secondary use for the cat litter, I wouldn't bother at all. Newspapers are just too untidy to make a daily habit of.

[Quadrille]

I used to buy a paper daily, seven days a week.

Now I buy one if there's a decent free DVD (that varies my read!), and when I'm going to be travelling.

I do pick up 3 or 4 free papers per week, but they only last about 15 minutes a piece.

For news, I use RSS.

Saved a fortune and no regrets - on the few occasions I buy one now, I mostly feel it was money wasted. There's no such thing as investigative journalism, granted. But when I'm paying, I'd like to see a little more than re-hashed press releases, without one single challenge to the standard PR bollox.

[King_Fisher]

How long do you think till all the newspapers go the way of the Dodo bird?

I personally think when all the present day readers die off, that will be it.

I dont see any of the younger generation reading them at all.

Kinda sad but I guess that's progress... As the world turns...KF

[Habtom]

KF, I don't think Newspapers will die for the same reasons Radio didn't die [huffingtonpost.com] with the arrival of TVs. They will just adapt to the changes in the world.

For similar reasons, I don't believe ebooks are going to replace printed books as well.

I think they will just all co-exist. Afterall, there are people in those areas who creatively try to make their business as alive as possible on daily basis.

Habtom

[King_Fisher]

Hab, Good post. I hope your right!...KF

[jsinger]

I remember predictions of the self-print newspaper.

True, and our local paper tried a faxed newspaper around 1938, which I guess was called facsimile back then.

For a few hundred Depression dollars in equipment, you could have a mini paper printed in your home within about an hour. Or you could buy a full newspaper on the corner for 2 cents.

"An article in the December 1937 issue of Current History noted President Roosevelt’s prediction that average citizens would soon be receiving their morning papers at home via facsimile. “The radio newspaper is here,” "