I didn't read a newspaper this morning...

...at least in hard copy, for the first Sunday of my adult life.

And I don't believe I missed a thing.

The Los Angeles Times, which supposedly is my local, has become so thin and so full-of-fluff I will no longer spend $1.50 just so I can read Steve Lopez in print. So I won't get Parade and the coupons and all the Best Buy flyers. Big deal; never buy anything there anyway.

They've trimmed the Sunday comics down to about 4 adult ones, they've slashed the business section down to about 8 pages, and they will soon shift the big Op-Ed section to Saturday, combining it with the book pages and in the process watering down both.

But rest assured LAT, I'm still getting my news from you -- and Google News, and the NYT, and Slate, and even SportsJournalists.com. But sorry LAT and Tribco, I'm getting all that for free. Just don't tell that to your advertisers, or to your "guest editor" Brian Glazer.

Sincerely,
Former subscriber,
T-V.

 

I don't subscribe to my newspaper because I don't live in the coverage area.

I don't subscribe to the local paper because it's not very good.

I don't subscribe to the big regional because I can get everything I want from it online.

Shame on me.

 

Consumers cannot be blamed for doing what's logical, nor should they feel they did anything wrong.
I get the Sunday Times and the Globe. It's getting harder and harder to justify the expense of the Sunday Globe, as there's less and less in it.

 

Once upon a time I would read 4 or 5 NY/NJ newspapers a day ... NYT delivered, bring my own product home with me, buy NYDN, NYP and another jersey rag.
Now I buy none... they're all here for free, except the NYT crossword which costs me $34.95 a year, or less than a month's worth of buying the paper at a newsstand.
We're all giving it away, I'm taking it for free.

 

The Washington Post has a fairly large Comcast ad at the bottom of the sports page this morning. There were also four stories and a rail down the left side. Sigh.

 

As an aside, two Fridays ago, I was in the local coffee shop at 8:30 a.m. waiting for some car repairs at the mechanic's across the street.

I counted 12 people sitting in, having coffee. Four of them were reading newspapers. They ranged in age from what looked like 30 to 70. Only two were reading the same newspaper (not the exact same newspaper, same "brand name," if you will). The only thing, all were men (so much for that coveted 20-35 woman demographic!).

Not that a one-day, one-coffee-shop happening says a lot, but I was impressed.

 

My shop hasn't given in to strip ads on my front sports page. I feel those days are numbered.

 

Nothing wrong with a little guilt, gotta sell papers somehow ...

Seriously, though, I think reporters tend to forget why a good portion of readers buy the paper ... not necessarily to read what we write but, gasp, for the advertisements. Lucky for us, the Internet hasn't really found a way to cater to local businesses ... but that doesn't mean it won't happen.

 

Dear write-brained: The whole idea is for NEWSPAPERS to figure out how to cater to local merchants on the Internet. If readers are migrating to the on-line product version, and they are, then it's incumbent on the industry to figure out how to shepherd its best advertisers over there, too.

 

Sure, but it's not happening. Anywhere. Many advertisers aren't willing to spend the same money for online ads as they are the ones in the paper because online traffic numbers still aren't there. I'm just saying people still buy the real paper if they want to read the ads ... which a lot of people do ..

 

Oddly, given the part of the business I've been in for quite some time, I still can't not read my local paper every day. I get information off the Internet all the time, obviously; but I don't want to be sitting at my computer as I go through my daily paper, that's for the couch or wherever.

Now, if we finally get to the place where you'll have a portable reader with full color graphics and such, well, things might change.

 

The online numbers/traffic are there. Those people just aren't paying attention ads that accompany the stories (because of pop-up blockers, etc. and because it's easier to ignore ads all together on the net).