Saturday, October 27, 2012

Superman Takes The Leap

Like typewriters, princess phones, and beepers, the printed newspaper is facing certain extinction.

Over the past decade, with ad revenue shrinking and the juggernaut that is the Internet, newspapers struggle to maintain viability and relevance in our world.  The recent reduction of issues of the New Orleans' Times-Picayune made newsroom editors shiver around the world.

I'm a devoted newspaper reader (although it's really just about doing the crossword puzzle). I grew up with the Des Moines Register and had the good fortune to live in Florida and read the St. Petersburg Times (now the Tampa Times), both papers have won a handful of Pulitzer Prizes.  When I'm feeling flush, I buy the Sunday NY Times.  Have you picked up a Sunday Times lately?  It used to be a mammoth issue, but now seems almost demure in size.

I fear the death knell of the newspaper though, the final straw, rang this past week when DC Comics announced Clark Kent is leaving the Daily Planet to start his own news blog.  Our mild-mannered reporter has grown weary of covering the Kardashians and the Metropolis Cat Show.

Perhaps what I fear most is being unable to spend $5 on a crossword puzzle.

5 comments:

  1. The Sunday crossword (darn you, Will Shortz!) is worth at least $5; that, and Blondie. Alas, Sundays won't be the same without them.

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  2. The Des Moines Sunday Register costs me $3 and I get two crossword puzzles, including the one from the NYTimes (although it's a week old). I live for my Sunday crosswords, and I do them in ink.

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  3. Bravo for you! I wait impatiently when the Sunday paper is not on the drive as expected. Finally. 8:15am what have they in store for us this week? "Bypassing Security" (SJ Mercury also a week behind). Enjoy!

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  4. The Detroit Free Press blows. Most pages are taken up by one HUGE photo with a couple paragraphs of text. The Ann Arbor paper is OK but we can't stand reading about UM sports. ;)

    JennyW

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  5. JennyW, I live in a part of IA mostly serviced by the Waterloo Courier (good for fish wrap) and the Cedar Rapids Gazette (only slightly better). The Des Moines Register remains a competent newspaper, although after today's endorsement of Myth Romney, I'm suspect.

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