http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/novem...141106Dirty.htm
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I Read A Newspaper Yesterday. It Made My Hands Dirty
James Boyce
Huffington Post
Tuesday, November 14, 2006

My seven year old son wanted the Patriots cards you can get for free with a coupon in yesterday's Globe. Considering the price of sports cards these days, the $2.50 for the Globe seemed like a fair deal. I last bought a Sunday Globe in the spring - when my son wanted the Red Sox cards you could get for free with a coupon in the Globe.

I have a few observations.

First of all, the Sunday paper is heavy. What are all those sections? And why do all the glossy pages fall out when you carry it? It just doesn't seem to be very user-friendly. Oh well, my son got his Patriots cards and I headed to the recumbent bike with my Sunday Globe. It was so big I thought maybe I should divide and conquer, start with the important bits and move onto the fluff.

I couldn't find the important bits.

Maybe this is because I had already read the Huffington Post (always plug the place that gives you free bottles of water whenever you're in New York) I had read CNN.com. I checked out Drudge Report. Daou Report. Daily Kos. MYDD and Boston.com for my weather and sports. I managed to do all this in a few minutes. I had done this early on Sunday morning as I wanted Sunday's news. I had read a great piece by Chris Bowers at MYDD on Russ Feingold not running in 2008. I felt quite well informed if I do say so myself.

I wondered what happens to people who try to stay on top of things by reading a newspaper. I am not trying to be a smug and self-centered blogger ranting in my pajamas and to be fair. The Sunday Globe was right on top of some news - it's just that it was Thursday's. It was like taking a step back in time, a small twenty-four / forty-eight hour step back but a step back nonetheless.

But then again, as you take that step back, you do get to see a lot of ads. A lot of ads.

The front section of a Sunday Globe is essentially an advertisement for Macy's with an occasional story that I didn't have to read because I already know how it ends. I figure 50% of the front section was advertising, minimum. I also noticed that all the stories I had already seen on Boston.com were in the Globe. I wonder if they realize this, if it gets out that you can read the same stories for free online, well, that can't be good for business.

It then occured to me that I hadn't read the business section. It didn't take long - it was essentially the stock and mutual fund indexes.

I recycled the help wanted, the real estate and the car sections. I'm not looking for a job, a house or a car.

I didn't even glance at a single circular. Or the PARADE magazine.

I was ten minutes into my ride. And my paper was all in the recycling section. Except the travel section. I opened it up. And it was all ads. I think there was one article on Skiing in New Hampshire. I don't ski.

Newspaper circulation has been declining for twenty years now - twenty years. This is what is known as a long term trend. And a trend, to be honest that I don't see ending. I had the opportunity to deal with the Globe when I was doing a marketing turnaround program a few months back. Their circulation is declining so they are raising their prices so they make the same amount of money. The faster the circulation goes down, the faster they have to raise rates. Boy, that cliff sure is coming fast boys. Hold onto your free sports cards when you go over it.

Look. I know some newspaper columnists. I spent some time with Maureen Dowd at YearlyKos early this year in Las Vegas. She's short. I met Ellen Goodman of the Globe with Arianna a few weeks ago. She was very nice and seemed like a good person. It's not that I want all newspapers to vanish. It's just that they're going to and I think everyone working at one really needs to think about what they're going to do next.

Then I noticed my hands. Covered in black ink. Just the lucky strike extra that you should remember should you ever think about actually buying a newspaper again.

Here's my takeaway. I paid $2.50 to see advertisements and read stories that I knew about last week. I was left with a big bag of paper to recycle and stained hands and twenty minutes on the bike with nothing to read.

At least my son is happy.

Newspapers have advantages over the internet. You read the things in it that you would not dream of looking up on google. EG important things about turmeric being an anticancer food supplement...articles about the way television is bad for the brain of children. Articles about education, what is happening to the young at schools. What is happening to schools.

Newspapers offer you NEW information, so that you cannot become obsessed by one theme.

Newspapers cannot be denied. An original, or even a photocopy of an article is pretty close to proof that on a certain day certain things happened, or were said to have happened. Proof that the writer on this day in history was pro- or anti- war. The warmongers can be noted for prosterity. Our children can read firsthand who was responsible for he mess made in the 21st century. We can keep important clues in an archive.

Newspapers are evidence.

Newspapers give us pictures of peoples faces. It is nice to have a copy of the Japanese cabinet. I could learn their faces and if I saw one in a restaurant I would know exactly what areas of responsibility they had. I may even end up talking to one and have a message or a question for them. This kind of information is not on the internet. The internet might have a picture of Tony Blair for instance. But I would have some hunting to go through to find the three I have cut out of newspapers that have him looking, humiliated, shamed, possessed. These pictures tend to disappear from the records.

Some people do not have the internet. They can be just as informed or even more informed, by wading through their newspapers.

Granted, advertising is a bit of waste of paper. Perhaps they should make newspapers more user friendly. Perhaps they should have a different way of sponsoring companies. Maybe a page at the end with a list of the companies that sponsor a paper. These things might be very useful to the reader...to know which companies like which newspaper groups.

Newspapers are like diaries, and the internet is like the television. The television, unless you have the video recorder on 24/7, is just a hearsay bit of 'rumour', albeit perhaps seen by millions. Nevertheless, television and the internet are both like rivers, streams of consciousness, that pass. Here one minute, forever changing, and gone the next. Every item is like a leaf on the surface of the water. Once it has flashed by how are you going to catch it back? Or are you going to print out the articles or comments? Thus, newspapers (and even the internet) have to be careful, and not do or say things that scandalize people, without good cause. The internet does not have to be QUITE so careful. I am not saying that the internet is bad. Bad people are exposed on the internet. The person has to find out before he can sue the internet site. By then the truth may have got out. Of course, we are not deceived, the internet has a record too. When they make certain things illegal, we won't be able to unsay, or unwrite stuff. That is something we should be aware of. They may come for us one day, and put us in jail for exercising 'free speech'. As soon as Political Correctness steps in, we will be in trouble.

Boy, what a smug piece that was. Could you all really imagine a world with no newspapers ... who would report the news? TV, bloggers????? Give me a break.