We used to get both english dailies here in Bangkok, have not had delivery in about 7 years, and in that time I think I’ve picked up a newspaper less than 10 times.  I think the popularity of smart phones and pads will rapidly increase the decline of printed news.  Now theres more of trend for what I read to see pay for web site news also.  Many news sites used to be totally free, now many I see are adding paid content sections.  Gotta be a rough business for newspapers everywhere now.

 
The newpaper is a dying breed.   With the convenience and the proliferation of the internet, people are not seeing the need to read yesterday’s old news in a paper when they can get updated, current news online. 
 
 
Glenn
 
 

Of my local papers (non Chicago), one publishes Tues-Sat and the other Sun-Fri. I subscribe to both. Between the two I do get local news but I read the Chicago papers on line for a broader picture. I don’t know what else I would do when I read the paper and eat breakfast at 6:30 without a newspaper! Plus I love the comics and some are difficult to find online.  

I started delivering a daily newspaper at age 8 for my older brother and had my own route at age 10. The newspaper is part of my DNA now. I’m a happy camper because the Minneapolis Star Tribune started publishing the printed facsimile again that I can read on my iPad. Web based systems just don’t cut it but the printed facsimile editions help when you are on the road a third of the year.

 
Like you Davydd:  I started my paper route at age 8.  I carried about 150 paper with my bicycle six miles every day.  Sunday’s were hard because of the huge paper but I did it.  When I first started, weekly papers were 0.25 weekly.  Most paid promptly but some did not and in fact many cheated me but it taught me a lot of lessons about how to negotiate.  Some I lost but most I won.  That life lesson still remains with me today and it taught me a lot about my retired and current business.  A great experience that I will never ever forget although sometimes through rain, snow and heat it was difficult.
 
I still enjoy reading the daily newspaper with Mamaw Smith every morning at 5:00AM with coffee but I guess it is a matter of time before the printed media expires.
 
Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN 

I started delivering a daily newspaper at age 8 for my older brother and had my own route at age 10. The newspaper is part of my DNA now. I’m a happy camper because the Minneapolis Star Tribune started publishing the printed facsimile again that I can read on my iPad. Web based systems just don’t cut it but the printed facsimile editions help when you are on the road a third of the year.

Ours went to three days a week a while ago, too. What’s weird is they won’t even publish obituaries online unless it’s one of the regular publishing days. Made it a little hard to schedule my aunt’s funeral.

Where I’m at, the paper is printed once a week, on Wednesday.

This trend is happening all over the country. As advertisers find other modes of advertising, the cash cow is drying up. No milk, no paper.

I like what Warren Buffet said the other day about his recent purchase of 60 some smaller daily and weekly papers.
Paraphrasing. “There are several places you can read about what’s happening in Afghanistan but your local paper is where you read about what’s going on in your town”

For the fun of it, I looked at today’s local paper here.
What WB says is true … but in our case, the local paper was full of news from ‘Afghanistan’ and there were less than 20 items that could be considered local … maybe 5 from “Main Street.’
 

I worked for the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel in the late 80’s thru the mid nineties.What an exciting place to be back then! Circulation was high as a result of my telemarketing department( I was a supervisor), advertising was a huge part of the paper, and it was so much fun to be there when huge stories broke, as word ran rampant thru the building. Nowadays I rarely buy a newspaper, as I get what I need online from them.Apparently they do charge now after viewing so many articles, which I have never hit the limit.
Its sad to me, because the printed word is becoming obsolete.

Where else can I get the funnies? I know some are on line, but I like all of the ones I regularly read lined up in the paper.
 
Felix4067, I also have problems with the grammar, or lack there of, used in the paper. I also have trouble listening to national news broadcasts for the same reason. What is wrong with those people?
 

You might find this story interesting — about the demise of copyeditors, who, in my opinion, have been absolutely essential in terms of maintaining standards of grammar, syntax, spelling, and accuracy. 
I was a copy editor very briefly in my short journalism career. It demands special talents which are rapidly disappearing.
http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=1698 http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=1698
 
 

I like reading the local paper every day & look forward to it. I COULDN’T  imagine going into the “library” with an Ipad or whatever those things are.
for the first time in over a year our paper didn’t get delivered today. we called, gave them our info & within 45 mins. it was at the front door.
cut back mail delivery to 5 days a week but don’t cut back on the newspaper.

The problem is on several fronts. For some reason, corporations got the idea that you can make money hand-over-fist in the newspaper business. The reality is, you can make a living owning a paper, but you’re not going to get rich. About 80 percent of a newspaper’s costs are fixed – transportation, the cost of ink, the cost of the paper. There’s only so much you can cut there, so you have to make your cuts in that remaining 20 percent.
 
What gets cut at a local paper? Well, your older reporters are making too much money, the bean counters say, so they have to go. Nevermind that they have the knowledge base that is critical and have developed a loyal reader base over the years, we’ll kick them out the door and replace them with somebody fresh out of school. And we’ll pay the newbies a buck more than minimum wage and squeeze as much as we can out of them before they burn out and quit.
 
What else gets cut? Well, we’re printing too many sections/editions, so that gets cut. Nevermind that you’re cutting your available ad space in half, it means we can lay off pressmen and buy a cheaper press.
 
We’ll centralize our ad production, laying off the ad builders who had personal relationships with their customers and knew what they wanted and how to make their ads pop off the page. Our ad builders at the centralized location are so overworked that they don’t have time to give any ad the personal touch, so the ads look bland, but we saved a few salaries.
 
We’ll either ignore the Internet altogether or we’ll put a website up long after the horse has left the barn and our readers are used to getting their news elsewhere. The industry treated their news like it didn’t have value, giving it away for free on their sites. Now many outfits are trying to put up paywalls – but readers are used to not paying for their content, so that’s a tough hill to climb.
 
I don’t know the solution. But it seems to me the bigger newspaper outfits are ignoring the one thing they have that their competitors don’t – local news, local content, local knowledge, local relationships. They cut and cut and cut until the remaining skeleton crews don’t have the time or energy to pursue those local stories that the other guys aren’t covering.
 
By the way, I just started with Patch after 5 years with weekly newspapers and I’m loving every minute of it.  Is Patch like bartl describes? It’s too soon for me to say, as I literally started last week, but I will say this: Patch has given me more opportunities for training in the last two weeks than my former employer gave me in the last four years.  Training is how you develop your people. Treating it as a line-item that can be cut is a huge, huge mistake.
My feeling is Patch can help a newspaper website by linking to stories and driving those visitors back to the original newspaper site. I would hate to see the area weeklies go out of business. But they’re being hurt far more by their ownership than by any threat Patch poses, I really believe.