I spent a few hours at the public library yesterday, researching an upcoming article and working on a preliminary outline. Being me, I brought along a snack (peanuts from a giant Costco can) and a soft drink* that I’d partially frozen and wrapped in newspaper (diet sodas taste better very, very cold).
When I unwrapped the drink my eye fell on the newspaper’s date: June 20, 2016.
Aside from a little fraying around the edges the section was as readable as it ever was, although I’ve been using it fairly often for more than two years now.
Oh, newsprint: I will miss you when you’re gone.
Yesterday brought the news that The New York Daily News laid off half its staff in order to focus on digital coverage. While some regional newspapers are doing well, larger papers struggle.
As an old print newshound, I mourn the loss for personal as well as society-wide reasons. Cries of “fake news!” are a diversion from the newspaper’s stated purpose: To comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
And to produce a daily or mostly daily item that’s incredibly useful, too.
A newspaper is more than news
Broadsheets and tabloids alike catch paint drips, spillover during the filling of jam jars, urine from un-housebroken puppies. They sit in the front hall so people can put wet shoes and boots on them, giving us all the chance to intone, “These are The Times that dry men’s soles.” #sorrynotsorry
They get folded into bird cages, cushion items being mailed, and sometimes are used to wrap fish and chips. Vinegar (another magic item) mixed with water and some newspaper cleans windows more affordably than paper towels and Windex.
Color comics make great gift wrap. The newsprint sections are swell for kindling the fireplace, wood stove or camp fire.
A design-build guy told me about finding crumpled newspapers (and horsehair!) inside the walls of older Alaska homes; insulation wasn’t available, so people used what they had. Smoothed out, the pages were still absolutely legible after decades behind plaster.
As I noted in a post called “Online news won’t save the planet,” a lack of newspapers means a lack of access to what’s going on in the world. Those with smartphones or computers can get in touch with news coverage. But will they? Or will they skim a few headlines and then go back to the latest cat videos?
I hope the local newspaper hangs on. It’s where I used to work, and where I still contribute theater reviews and the occasional short feature, so I feel a connection even though I haven’t been a full-time reporter since late 2002.
It’s essential to have a local or at least regional paper to cover the stuff the nationals can’t or won’t: city or state political shenanigans, housing trends, economic issues, the reason you’ve heard so many sirens in your neighborhood lately.
Local papers hold bureaucrats and elected officials accountable when things go wrong. When the powerful break laws, or bend them to the ethical breaking point, some enterprising reporter is (or should be) there to point it out. That’s in keeping with the old newspaper mission: “Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”
Newspapers and “good” news
But local newspapers also pounce on the good things that happen, and on the fascinating stories that reflect the place where you live. A few recent Anchorage headlines:
“Meet the woman who started Alaska’s first peony farm”
“Firewood sales by scooter in Spenard”
“Public piano strikes a chord in Town Square”
“Native memory: How a kid from New Jersey helped save Dena’ina culture”
A national newspaper (or magazine, or TV or radio station) is highly unlikely to find stories like these – and even if they did, would they get them right? Unless the reporters live here or have lived here, they probably won’t.
People like to talk about “citizen journalists,” aka bloggers. As a blogger myself, and the creator of a blogging course,** I do know the value that all these extra points of view can bring.
But as a former reporter, I also know that a professional media organization can almost always do things bloggers can’t: Report doggedly, question repeatedly (especially the unpopular questions) and most of all, provide perspective to explain what happened, why it happened and what’s likely to happen next.
Besides, blogs don’t spring from rolls of newsprint. You can’t clean a window or wrap fish with the most recent edition of Surviving and Thriving.
Readers: How do you use newspaper?
*Those who know me might assume that this was a Diet Coke but it was, in fact, a Diet Pepsi. That’s because I’ve lately become enamored of the Pepsi Stuff program, whose prizes are pretty cool. (At least one of them literally so: a full-sized refrigerator-freezer with a Pepsi logo, which sadly is now sold out.)
The down side is that while the premiums aren’t spendy (they start at 15 points), points are harder to come by: The specially marked products are worth only one to nine points apiece. Still, I’ve already sent away for three items for birthday and Christmas gifts. If you’re interested in joining the PepsiStuff program, I hope you’ll use my referral link. For each person I refer, I get two points. Those T-shirts aren’t going to buy themselves.
**Haven’t had a coupon code in quite some time, so what the heck: Until Aug. 31, use the discount code NEWSPAPER to save 25 percent on Write A Blog People Will Read.
Recently, our local newspaper quit delivering the paper each morning. People get their paper with the mail delivery. There are many unhappy subscribers and paper deliverers without a job. They also cut out the Sunday newspaper. They switched to a weekend edition that has the coupons on Saturday when the paper comes out. This weekend edition is available in WM and paper boxes on Saturday and Sunday.
I never really thought of not having a paper for jobs around the house. I use a plastic bag in the garbage can, but I often put newspaper in the plastic bag to help absorb runny things. I put paper down to absorb a leak from dishwasher and from sink. Newspaper really seems indispensable in everyday life.
Plus, if there were only large papers, no one would know I won the Cullman County Senior Spelling Bee. Hundreds of people made a point of congratulating me and I was asked to stand at many events. And, I had pictures and an article to give to children and grandchildren. I enjoyed that.
I would never drink Pepsi even for free prizes.
It is hard to believe you can bring food and drink into the library. A library tyrant saw my bottle of water in my purse and told me to take it out of the library. I objected because my cold water would get hot in the summer heat. She told me I was setting a bad example for children because they would see my water and then bring water into the library, too. I stuffed the bottle down and zipped my purse.
We’re allowed to bring in drinks with lids. I have a plastic lid that snaps over the top of my soft-drink can.
As for the peanuts, food isn’t allowed — but I can go down to the lobby, where there’s a cafe and a lot of tables, and eat them there. Or, if the day is nice, I can take a short break to go outdoors and snack.
They don’t allow food in our library, but there is a cafe there also where you can go and eat if necessary. That is sad about the New York Daily News, but also a sign of the times. We will definitely miss newspapers when they are gone.
Between that a local news broadcasts it’s a shame. A few years ago our local NBC affiliate left. Now in order to know any local news you have to listen to the radio, which you can’t always do, or read an increasingly slimming down local newspaper. The most reliable news broadcast is from a large well known city that has no bearing on where I live.
In addition to news about crime and politics, local media put out stories that bring communities together. Someone will do a story about someone who needs help or wants to offer help, and suddenly people are lining up to offer their services or to receive vital assistance.
For example, one year a local newspaper columnist wrote that the homeless shelter was running low on towels. Sometimes the towels they had were used, washed, dried and re-used multiple times daily, which will greatly reduce their lifespans. People came out of the woodwork to donate linens.
And sometimes newspapers just do fun stuff. We used to do an annual “best of holiday lights” tour, in which we reporters fanned out across town acting on tips from readers. We interviewed homeowners, got great photos and ran an article with photos and a map. The response was tremendous.
That’s the kind of stuff you don’t see from a regional news medium.
You are so right.
We can no longer afford our local newspaper or the regional one.
I was a distributor for a regional newspaper for 10 years some time ago. It was the most demanding and enjoyable job I have ever had. Back in the day “expose’s” on abuses in government, human trafficking, homelessness, “sweet heart deals” for certain professional baseball teams…and much more were funded, researched and printed. The stories were front page news. It seems that ship has sailed…The Paper is a shadow of it’s former self, has shrunk in size and content, but the price has increased dramatically…The Sunday Paper now goes for $4 PLUS tax.
I will miss the paper…we use it in gardening, painting, to line drawers, for school projects, to dry out shoes/boots and most importantly as fire starter for the woodstoves. Roll the paper long ways and then “tie” it in a knot. About 5-6 of these make an excellent fire starter…
I was a newsroom clerk at The Philadelphia Inquirer in the late 1970s-early 1980s. It was the heyday of dramatic foreign coverage, expose after expose, Pulitzer after Pulitzer. I’d be taking dictation from a reporter calling in from Lebanon or Afghanistan or Africa.
There was a sense of excitement and mission in the work — definitely a case of comforting the afflicted/afflicting the comfortable.
It was an amazing time! I actually got to meet the journalist who went “undercover” dressed in robes to investigate “human trafficking and slavery”…Despite assurances that it wasn’t happening….with their reporting they proved it was. As they shared some of their journey…the one fella was certain several times that they had been found out and were “goners”. The message I got was the lack of respect for human life that was exhibited in this series…As memory serves these guys won many awards for their efforts. It seems that kind of journalism just doesn’t exist any more….
I have a good friend who works for our last state-wide newspaper. She hasn’t had a raise in 10 years. *sigh* There are rumors flying that the paper will fold by the end of the decade. She’s always worked for the paper, it was her first job. Of course, she also picks up writing gigs whenever possible.
Now would be a good time for her to start looking for online writing job. If she’s interested, I could find out whether there will be another discount on “Earn More Writing” this year and let her know. I know the woman who runs it and her students get results.
It’s a different kind of writing, but not that different. I was in newspapers for 18 years and adapted quite handily — and now I can make more in a day than I could in a week at my last newspaper job.
Or if she’d like to pick my brain, feel free to give her my contact info.
Thanks, Donna! I’ll mention it to her.
I miss reading the community calendar in the local paper. I haven’t been able to find it on their website–which doesn’t mean it’s not there, as their website isn’t particularly screen reader-friendly. There are places I can find out about some local events, but the newspaper is a great clearinghouse for that sort of thing.
The absurdist part of me is seeing a business opportunity if newspapers ever go under completely–bundles of newspaper sections, printed (or unprinted), for cleaning, packing and other household projects. Or is that already a thing? 😛
When I was a kid we got four newspapers a day in South Jersey…The Philadelphia Bulletin, The Daily News, the Woodbury Times and the Camden Courier Post. On Fridays we got the Star Herald ( the Catholic paper as my sainted mother called it). I only read that to find out which morally objectionable movies and TV shows that were soon to be on my must see list! My parents, brothers and I devoured them. Even on vacation down the shore we all would get the paper first thing in the morning and pass it around. I miss getting the Sunday Inquirer and spending all morning perusing each section with a steaming cup of tea.
Sadly an era has passed.
Agreed. I distinctly remember thinking in 1999 how lucky I was to be a reporter because no matter what, people would always need newspapers.
Sigh.
When I was growing up in Pittsburgh, there were 3 newspapers — the Post-Gazette, the Press, and the Sun-Telegraph. Of course we got the Pittsburgh Catholic on Sunday. Also On Sundays Dad would go and buy out-of-town newspapers, mostly the N.Y. Times, the Washington Post, and when he could get it, the Boston Globe. After I (finally) finished college, I went to work for a small regional paper in southwestern Pennsylvania. I loved it. Even as recently as the mid-1980s, the town where I live now had 2 papers, one morning and one evening. The morning paper went out of business about 20 years ago. I agree with Eileen and other posters… an era has passed. I believe we are the poorer for it.