I am concerned about newspapers

Just got via LA Times today the demise of a Seattle newspaper, a paper that's been around, I hear, since the Civil War. That is a long time! The one going down is a Hurst paper, the same as owns the masthead of our local paper. The connection in ownership brings me the concern.

It is not just Seattle. It is all over. Word is that newsprint is in trouble lots of places. Perhaps revenues are down because there are other ways to get the news. Lots of Internet news these days from sources including newsprint uploads to any number of other sources. All this causes folk not to subscribe, which reduces the revenue, which if left unchecked brings the demise.

I might be old fashioned, but I still like to go out in the morning and pick up the paper from the driveway and come back in and scan and read over a hot cup of coffee. I usually start with the front page pictures and headlines and move to the obits and the editorial page. The rest I catch up on later. Never cared much for the funnies. Don't know for sure what I would do if one morning there was no newsprint in the driveway.

I have a friend who writes for a paper up north. He has been doing that for years. Now, he is concerned about his career being a dying breed. He is looking to train in something else that might be more lasting in this age. I am sure that a lot of people who work for newspapers are doing the same thing. Even in my hometown some nearly 100 people are probably a little yancy over what the future might hold for them, too.

Also I do wonder about the coupon clippers, and the advertisers who seem to think advertising via newsprint pays. I think people still watch the paper for sales - on milk, hamburger meat, and other things.

What happens when there is no place to advertise to get the product availability into the hands of the wanting? Well, somebody will invent a better mousetrap, they say. I am just not too sure that anything can do that with the efficiency found in newsprint.

Oh, I know that we have always been adaptable. New ideas come and old ones fade away. Look what happened to the old mimeograph machine! Those makers had to find something else to make. We still have information decimation, but it is not mimeographed anymore. It goes out in the form of e-mail or some such stuff.

While I am concerned, I will get over it. I do think there is a need for local newsprint, a need that it will be hard to replace. Let's just see where this all goes.