Today the Audit Bureau of Circulations said that daily circulation of newspapers has declined 7.1 percent from October-March, they compared the data from 2007 to 2008. This is based on daily papers that are delivered 365 days a year. One of the only papers to show an increase in readers was the Wall Street Journal. Even Sunday paper circulation has declined. Their income has stayed the same due to price adjustments.
What I am feeling is that the newspaper industry should have seen this decline, it has been steadily happening since the 1990's. I know that I do not receive my news from the local paper or from the number one ranking paper, USA Today. I either watch it on T.V. or read it online. I for one am not big on heaps of newspaper cluttering up my home, and in the process of not buying a paper I am saving trees.
I am not saying that journalism is a dying breed of writing, but the product itself is more or less inconvenient. I do buy a Sunday paper once a month for the coupons, but I don't read it. The whole paper ends up getting recycled. I don't care for the articles they have. It mostly pertains to violence, or tragic sob stories that I cannot emotionally commit to.
Newspapers used to be the cutting edge of writing and spreading of news, not so much today. What happened this morning at 5 am has already been read, processed and we have moved on, do we really need to read it again in the Saturday paper? I don't. It's much easier to flick on the T.V. to CNN or pull it up on-line, if I view my news on-line I get to pick which articles I want to see, not what some editor decided was news worthy. I like to have options and choices.
Now that you know my preferences tell me yours. Do you read a daily newspaper, get the Sunday paper, or get your news from an on-line source. Now part II, if newspapers were to quit being published in paper form would you miss them?
Kill the trees you friggin hippy!
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