*** UPDATED with poll *** Question of the day
Thursday, Oct 18, 2012 - Posted by Rich Miller
* You may have heard that Newsweek is dumping its print edition and going fully digital…
It is important that we underscore what this digital transition means and, as importantly, what it does not. We are transitioning Newsweek, not saying goodbye to it. We remain committed to Newsweek and to the journalism that it represents. This decision is not about the quality of the brand or the journalism—that is as powerful as ever. It is about the challenging economics of print publishing and distribution.
* Andrew Sullivan…
Until a couple of years ago, I also read physical books on paper, and then shifted to cheaper, easier, lighter tablet versions. Then it became a hassle to get the physical NYT delivered in Provincetown so I tried a summer of reading it on a tablet. I now read almost everything on my iPad. And as I ramble down the aisle of Amtrak’s Acela, I see so many reading from tablets or laptops, with the few newspapers and physical magazines seeming almost quaint, like some giant brick of a mobile phone from the 1980s. Almost no one under 30 is reading them. One day, we’ll see movies with people reading magazines and newspapers on paper and chuckle. Part of me has come to see physical magazines and newspapers as, at this point, absurd. They are like Wile E Coyote suspended three feet over a cliff for a few seconds. They’re still there; but there’s nothing underneath; and the plunge is vast and steep.
I can’t remember the last time I bought a newsprint edition of a newspaper. I subscribe to the New Yorker, but read it online.
* The Question: How often do you read the newsprint edition of newspapers? Explain.
*** UPDATE *** Let’s add a poll…
- Ravenswood Right Winger - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 1:18 pm:
I read the Cubune in print daily. But that is only because my wife subscribes. I don’t know why she still does.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 1:20 pm:
Showing my age here: I still buy the Sun Times, Wall Street Journal, and NY Times EVERY day. There is something about holding the paper that just makes my day. NEVER EVER buy or read the TRIBUNE.. I have an iPad, and have the WSJ and NYTimes on the pad, but just dont enjoy the experience..Like RM I get the Newyorker delivered and I read it cover to cover..
I know I am a dying breed but I still love the print versions…
- Robert the Bruce - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 1:22 pm:
Roughly once a month; I can’t remember the last time I bought a newsprint edition anywhere other than an airport.
- Stones - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 1:27 pm:
Only on an airplane…when I can pick one up at the airport. I have done it exactly three times this year.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 1:27 pm:
I read several newspapers every day and will continue as long as they are available. I read the digital editions on my ipad when I travel but it’s just not the same.
And it’s really hard to clip an article and save digitally in the same way. That still doesn’t work well in many of the electronic versions.
- Shore - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 1:28 pm:
sunday new york times and largely because I like the cultural stuff like the book review (even republicans like to stay informed). I haven’t bought a physical chicago newspaper in probably 3 years and the only reason I go to their websites now is to read kass, rick telander and brad biggs. Crains/rahm’s business cheerleader publication has also gone way down in quality and I dropped my subscription several years ago and haven’t regretted it.
The bigger issue for newspapers/bookstores is that younger generations now are growing up paperless and in households that don’t have newspaper subscriptions and aren’t really going to ever start buying them. That whole we buy ink by the barrel line is fast approaching its end use date.
- Liandro - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 1:29 pm:
I read my local paper almost every day…no one else gets local news done as well, and I don’t like the online layout. I just like to read local papers cover-to-cover. WaPo and Politico I read online. And occasionally something called “Capitol Fax”.
I could never read the NYT print…their layout seems so cluttered.
- ArchPundit - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 1:29 pm:
A couple times a week, but there is a college reader program that drops off papers at a couple spots around the university. So only because they are free and right next to where I grab lunch.
I do get the Sunday paper, but for the ads and coupons. Otherwise….I don’t know. And I used to pick up the Trib everyday in Saint Louis until they discontinued service here.
- train111 - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 1:31 pm:
Rarely if ever. I can get all the news I need online, and for any decent world news it is outside the US sources such as BBC.
train111
- Lil Enchilada - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 1:32 pm:
My husband still loves the newspaper so we get it 7 days a week. I read several newspapers a day on paper, but I also read it online. I read a couple of books a week when I have time, through my local library membership. I like the feel of a book in my hand, seeing how much more there is in front of me. I also receive magazines in the mail, though most of them are “gifts” from friends and family. I’m sort of a reader. I tried reading a book online but I didn’t care for it much.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 1:35 pm:
I ride trains. I pick up the print Sun-Times and Trib every day. Everything else, I read online.
- Newsclown - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 1:39 pm:
I still prefer to get the Illinois Times in paper form. The rest, I read electronically. My Dad-in-Law has no internet or computers and still gets several papers daily and on weekends in dead-tree form, I will skim them when I’m over there visiting.
- chefjeff - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 1:41 pm:
I read the Champaign News Gazette pretty much every day. Their online content is weak. Besides, I still shop in local stores and I look at the ads.
- Name Withheld - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 1:41 pm:
I read almost all news through my tablet (iPad, Nexus 7). It’s constantly updated, so I never feel like I’m getting old information. Additionally, because I can subscribe to multiple sources - I can get a number of articles that cover the same topic and feel like I’m getting more information or coverage.
The sole exception to this is when I buy the Sunday paper - and that is only for the grocery store coupons.
- VanillaMan - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 1:45 pm:
I don’t do paper.
I don’t do TV.
I don’t do radio.
I am a librarian since grade school. Worked my way through universities in two countries via a career as a research librarian for professors. Once the PC hit, I never looked back at print again.
Not only have I not read a Newsweek print magazine in ages, I won’t visit their website either unless I need to hear what the fringe left is pronouncing. Even then, I still prefer the NYT or the HuffPost, instead of Newsweek.
Tina Brown? I wouldn’t read anything she edits, even when it is free. She is a nut.
Also, there is no way the Newsweek staffers will be able to survive on the Internet. Not those salaries.
Welcome back to Earth, Mr. Sullivan!
- mokenavince - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 1:45 pm:
Sun Times and the Trib. every day.Their like having old friends around.I would hate to see
the day when their just on line.
- 47th Ward - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 1:48 pm:
I read the print versions of the Economist and subscribe to the Tribune. The Economist is for the daily ride on the El and is the best news weekly on the planet. I mostly read news stories in the on-line Tribune (and many, many other sites), but I’m still addicted to print for one simple reason: I can’t eat lunch without a sports page in front of me.
My iPad just isn’t the same. Plus, I don’t want to get grease on the screen.
I once was a paperboy and the paper was usually late on my route because I’d read it first. I’ve always loved newspapers and must have ink in my blood. There is something comforting about holding actual paper. I’ll miss them when they are gone, and have accepted the fact that the day is coming soon when paper is obsolete as a news medium.
- Rob - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 1:51 pm:
We began getting the NY Times recently and I enjoy it thoroughly. Most importantly, in the paper version, I read stories I would not read otherwise. It sounds trite but the way the paper is laid out means I get more out of it than I would/did online. Of course, this is the NY Times. The quality is higher and the content is both broader and deeper than the Chicago papers. I’ve never considered subscribing to the Trib or Sun Times but I never go to their websites either.
- Bill - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 1:53 pm:
I read the Trib on Sundays during commercials on the football games. Never during the week. Sometimes I pick up a free Sun-times to read in a restaurant once in a while but I would never buy one.
- L.S. - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 2:05 pm:
I bought a NYT at the airport for a flight because I knew I wouldn’t be able to read online inflight. I forgot about my old habits of reading the first parts of all the front page and then going to the back pages and finishing the stories. It was nostalgic, but that’s about it.
- Wensicia - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 2:08 pm:
I get the Sunday Tribune. I pay $.49 extra per week for expanded digital content on-line. I see they’ve just offered a $14.99 digital-only monthly subscription.
- Telling It Like It Is - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 2:10 pm:
I go to my computer each day to read the online version of the printed local newspaper that we don’t get delivered until around 8:30 AM. Then, my wife walks to the end of our 400 foot driveway (in rain, snow, and sleet) to get it after I have already finished reading it with my coffee several hours earlier. My wife insists we subscribe to this local printed newspaper “just so she can do the crossword puzzle”.
I had just placed a two year subscription to Newsweek magazinewith a young grade school girl two days ago. After I found out today that Newsweek will be going strictly digital at year’s end, I called the young girl and canceled my Newsweek subscription. I decided to switch my order to another “printed” magazine that she is selling.
I have always read the Chicago Tribune online. I called the Tribune last month to place my order so I would be able to get their “enhanced” or “premium” digital version online. The girl at the Tribune that I got told me that “we no longer can take your order over the phone anymore. You will now have to order the digital version by yourself by going online and ordering it that way.” I told her that I had tried to do that and that for “whatever reason”, it was not going through? She said, “I’m sorry but that is the only available way to sign up for the digital version.”
Okay. It looks like I will no longer be reading the Chicago Tribune anymore after having done so for nearly 50 years. I guess that it is simply a “sign of the changing times” for baby-boomers like myself. I will probably just start reading some other newspapers online or else just get my news from the television and radio. I understand the newspaper industry is trying to reinvent themselves in order to survive. However, I am not so sure that the Tribune is going about it the right way if what I went through is the final outcome for the newspaper and the newspaper reader.
- Past the Rule of 85 - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 2:10 pm:
I read the paper version of the SJ-R daily and check the Post-Dispatch, Sun-Times, New York Times and Washington Post on-line several times a week. It just doesn’t feel right to not have the printed paper with my morning coffee.
- Calhoun Native - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 2:11 pm:
I get the print edition of the State Coupon-Register because I don’t want to put my iPad in the bottom of the birdcage.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 2:11 pm:
Have loved print since I was a newspaper boy, and read the Sunday comics with my Dad. Old dog, I guess.
Plus my I-pad is too hard to throw across the room.
- Zool - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 2:15 pm:
Old habits die hard. Trib 3/week, NY Times on Sunday and WSJ 1-2/week, all in paper format. Read other papers online, but haven’t seen anything that duplicates the feel of the paper in hand.
- Mouthy - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 2:15 pm:
SJ-R print edition 7 days a week for decades however if they continue to wage war, with biased facts and figures, against my state pension then I’m dumping them and encouraging others to do so also. How dumb is it that the paper, who’s on the ropes itself, is advocating destruction of a good part of it’s subscriber base.
- Irish - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 2:16 pm:
Browsing the paper is an old habit. I am not real familiar with all tablet/PC news sources but the part of newsprint I enjoy is perusing the pages and noticing small items that might catch my attention. Sometimes those little bits are the most enjoyable part of the paper. And some days the only part of it that is worth the cost.
The electronic media I have seen does not give you the complete page. It presents the main articles and sometimes does not give you the full newsprint version. It also splits the paper into categories so you have to hunt for articles. And the articles are not always in the sections you would think they should be in. So to avoid the frustration I just grab the newsprint version and relax and browse.
- Joe Bidenopoulous - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 2:26 pm:
Sunday NY Times is delivered and though I don’t have the time to sit and read the entire thing on Sunday, I thumb through it the remainder of the week, which is fine b/c it’s mostly evergreen and features. Truthfully, I mostly get it for the online subscription that comes with it, but as someone else said, I’ll read things in print I’d never click (or even find) in the tablet, such as the really good business piece about Fender guitars a few weeks ago. Not that I really needed to read it, but still.
Past that, I get the Economist and Esquire and generally read both cover to cover. And for some unknowable reason, my wife insists on getting the Tribune delivered daily, though most editions never make it out of the bag, and I never read it myself. Reminds me I have to talk to her about that…
- Skeeter - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 2:28 pm:
I’m another person who only buys a print edition of newspapers in airports.
That being said, magazines are a bit different. I read print editions of The Atlantic, Chicago Magazine, and when things calm down around the office so that I have more time to read, probably will start reading the print edition of Wine Spectator again.
- Chicago Bars - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 2:32 pm:
Pick up a Sun-Times 1-2x a week. Get the Sunday Tribune every week. Would hate to get Sunday breakfast bacon grease on my iPhone.
Going to be tough call on $14.99 a month for Tribune digital. Sun-Times, online or in print, just seems to do a better job on reporting the City, County, State politics and providing a sports fix.
- Crime Fighter - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 2:40 pm:
We get the SJ-R (aka Urinal Register) in print daily. And I subscribe to the Sun-Times digitally and get it delivered via e-mail.
SJ-R’s parent, Gatekeeper Media Corporation, dumped award winning journalists Chris Britt and Bruce Rushton in its efforts to dumb-down like the Trib, so its subscription days may be numbered with us.
I always try to pick up an Illinois Times.
- cermak_rd - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 2:45 pm:
My partner subscribes to the Trib, so I read it, too. Not very often, but every now and again, if I have some time to kill. And on Sundays. I love looking at the ads in Sunday papers. It brings back memories of the Sears catalog at Christmas.
- Judgment Day - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 2:51 pm:
Newspaper?
What’s a “newspaper”?
IS it SDHC / USB 2.0 compatible?
- Sunshine - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 2:55 pm:
Read online regularly as its easier to flip through.
Go to www.sundaysaver.com for all my ads.
This should save lots of trees.
- vise77 - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 2:59 pm:
Read Sunday NYT mostly in print every week, but digitally beyond that. Don’t read the two Chicago dailies in print mainly because they have become so unbearably weak and it’s easier to skim online or via my smartphone. Still read New Yorker, Atlantic and Economist in print–I’m just shy of 40, but I still like print for those weightier, well written publications. (And I find it hard to give up physical books, but I guess that will come, given my bulging bookshelves and the hassle of moving all that weight.)
- Stuff happens - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 3:04 pm:
Didn’t take the poll because it asked about newspapers, and Newsweek is a magazine.
For me, it depends. I like an electronic version, but they tend to be too small for me.
And I won’t take my e-reader camping, backpacking, or to the pool. I’d rather splash water on my $2.95 print copy.
- steve schnorf - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 3:06 pm:
Showing my age, I read the local newspaper every day. 10-15 years ago I read 4 parers every day, plus Newsweek weekly. I no longer subscribe to any magazines. I read one or two books a week. I’ve never read a book any way but holding it in my hands.
- MontgomeryCo - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 3:11 pm:
I get the local paper 5 days a week and the county paper 2 days a week. The local paper has no website, and the county paper only puts part of it online. Everything else I read online.
- Plutocrat03 - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 3:20 pm:
I read the Trib and Economist hard copies for news.
My trade magazines as well as hobby (cars , planes etc.) on paper.
I scan four or five papers on the Internet when I have the time.
- justbabs - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 3:21 pm:
Currently, I read the Sun-Times and Tribune on paper daily. Not excited about their online versions in the least. The NYT and the Economist on my iPad (am I the only Economist online reader?). I miss getting the print version of NYT and will miss the others when they go. Like many others have pointed out it is the little stories that you find in print that make the “whole” so enjoyable. Plus what are Sunday mornings for, if not to spend poring over pages and pages of print?
- downstate commissioner - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 3:21 pm:
read a local paper daily; will sometimes look for news articles about a certain subject online. CapFax is my main news source online-check Newsfeeds and will read articles of interest…
- dr. reason a. goodwin - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 3:25 pm:
I read mostly on my tablet, but I do it by subscribing to Pressreader. I get an actual image of each page of the printed paper so I can flip through it. Pressreader includes the Trib and S-T plus hundreds of other papers around the world for one monthly price.
- Loop Lady - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 3:28 pm:
Can’t read on pcs at all and the print is still too small on tablets/i-phones. There is something about the light coming from behind the print that I can’t tolerate.
- STP - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 3:28 pm:
I work on the computer for hours each day - reading newprint was an enjoyment of my youth (I had to wait for my father to share with me) - it continutes today - also for books, and some magazines
- persnickety - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 3:45 pm:
Still get the Sunday Tribune delivered - like to read the ads with Sunday AM coffee. Books are read on Kindle, gossip “papers” only when traveling so I can leave them on the plane for attendants to read and laugh.
- RNUG - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 4:01 pm:
I read the paper SJ-R daily (sometimes I wonder why except I prefer to do the puzzles in paper form) and the IT weekly. Have a few paper monthly magazine subscriptions.
I probably understand the print versus online dilemma a bit better than a lot of people. As Rich knows, one of my retirement “hobbies” is editing and professionally publishing a mid-sized international car club’s newsletter in print form (mailed bulk rate to hold down the cost) and also published online as a PDF version of the hard copy. The only real “bonuses” the online issue has is (a) quicker delivery and (b) full color whereas the print copy usually has only 8 pages of color out of 32 pages.
My readership seems to be split about 50/50 between wanting exclusively paper or wanting online only; they get both. The club has a pretty decent web site but only 1/2 the people use it at any level.
The split seems to correlate more with age than any other demographic. Seems us older people, even the ones like myself who worked in the computer industry as a career, prefer the look and feel of paper.
Paper still has a slight edge in terms of portability and search ease; even with a online index, I often find it quicker to flip through my hard copy folders. And it’s much easier to browse a paper copy just looking for items of interest. And I don’t care what you say about electronic archives or CD/ROM stability, to me paper is still the best format for long term storage.
But I also believe electronic media is the future, the real problem is how you balance online and paper …
- olddog - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 4:05 pm:
I’m a news junkie, and I used to buy the Trib when I’d eat out for breakfast. It was kind of a morning ritual, and it helped me get ready for teaching journalism; I could keep up with the news and bring the paper into that day’s classes. But I stopped several years ago. The tipping point came when the price went up $1.25 in the vending machines in Springfield. By then there was less news in the Trib than the Journal-Register, and I just wasn’t getting my money’s worth from either one.
Now I get all of my news on line, but I don’t check the J-R website because I don’t want to use up my 12 free page views surfing.
- Homer J. Simpson - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 4:09 pm:
Don’t know what I’m going to read while in the doctor’s waiting room now.
- Anon - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 4:20 pm:
I’m not normally anonymous here, but I don’t out myself on the internet the way I’m about to. I’m an academic librarian. Of the 2000 or so journals the library subscribes to, we now get 24 as print journals. Some of those we get print/online subscriptions, so the actual number of print only journals is less than two dozen.
I read recreationally on my Nook mostly, but I bought as actual book today. I was at the university bookstore, there was a remainders table. I got “Four Fish” by Paul Greenberg for 4 bucks.
- zatoichi - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 7:27 pm:
As we moved around the country I was always able to get the Sunday Trib at local bookstores. Rarely missed. About 5 years ago the local distributor in Illinois stopped carrying the Trib so it is simply not available close by. Do not miss it. Local rag repeats many of the stories I see on MSN. Borrowed my son’s Nook to read a book he recommended. Just did not like the experience. I read too much stuff on a screen. There a times a plain paper book just works, no batteries needed.
- Soxfan - Thursday, Oct 18, 12 @ 10:25 pm:
News weeklies are a casualty of the internet. I used to read them regularly to get a more in-depth analysis of national and world news. Now, however, I can find everything I need to know about any topic with just a few clicks of the mouse.
As for newspapers, I read at least two printed copies everyday. I prefer the print format because I end up reading articles I wouldn’t have “clicked on” otherwise.
That being said, I have always hated the messy ink and the size of print newspapers. If these two flaws are not addressed, it won’t be long before they “stop the presses” for good.