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The last print subscriber

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by I Should Coco, Sep 22, 2014.

  1. Mauve_Avenger

    Mauve_Avenger Member

    Often I wonder if the print edition is still read by a good chunk of the population that does not go on Twitter and talk about it. I usually get notifications on Twitter after I post an online story, but obviously that would not happen with print readers. You are less likely to hear from print subscribers on social media if they don't use it.
     
  2. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Frank, do you mean that too many people working on newspapers don't read the print product? Or that they don't read the newspaper at all, online version included?

    I subscribe to the New York Times tablet edition, and I use the "Today's Paper" app to read it, because I do like my news kind of frozen in amber on a typical, non-911, non-Sandy Hook kind of day, rather than rushing past me on a Twitter feed or even the paper's own Web site. It's there when I get up a few minutes before 4 a.m., without fail. Can't say that for the print product. There is literally no downside to reading the tablet edition instead of the print version. None.

    We subscribe to the local paper's print edition, because there is no tablet version. I read it at stop lights on my drive to the train station, and in the car if I have some minutes to spare when I get to the station.
     
  3. 3_Octave_Fart

    3_Octave_Fart Well-Known Member

    I subscribed until about a year ago.
    Now I use this as my clearinghouse for news and commentary.
    http://www.aldaily.com/
     
  4. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    That is quite the cornucopia.
     
  5. 3_Octave_Fart

    3_Octave_Fart Well-Known Member

    Never been one day I haven't found something good there to read.
     
  6. AD

    AD Active Member

    but this is what i'm asking:

    are even we reporters now devaluing work that appears only in the print product -- and placed there behind some 'wall' in the hope that it will drive readers to the more lucrative print product?

    if it ain't on line, simply, it ain't worthy? it ain't news?

    seems to ignore the basics of newsgathering. but here we are, i believe.
     
  7. JayFarrar

    JayFarrar Well-Known Member

    Ding ding.

    Earlier today, bouncing ideas off about playing up a local rivalry game.

    And the general response was, "yeah it is a good idea but how do we get the students to participate?"

    Well, because they'll see it in the paper.

    "Yeah, kids don't read the paper, so can we contact the coach or something to let the students know?"

    To work in newspapers now, you need a little true believer in you to make it work.

    You also have to believe that your readers feel the same way.
     
  8. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Isn't that just, with all due respect, whistling past the graveyard?

    Why is the solution to pretend that people are reading when they aren't?
     
  9. Doc Holliday

    Doc Holliday Well-Known Member

    Back to the original question/comment since the thread has been thoroughly derailed now.

    I haven't subscribed to the local or regional paper here since my employer cut our discounted price and started charging employees full price. My parents are no longer living, but they both subscribed until the day they died, the eldest being 76. I have two extended family members that subscribe to newspapers, one of them is 75 and the other 48. They both seem to love reading the paper every day. It seems to me that at least for the generation that grew up reading newspapers, nothing has changed. I have friends in the 40 and 50 age group that all subscribe and read it even though they can get their content on the web.

    Interestingly, what all these people tell me, is yeah they can read it online first. But if it's controversial or even difficult to substantiate, they want to read the paper because they know if it's in the paper then it's true and/or real.

    There is still a real amount of respect attached to newspaper journalism that online journalism is yet to capture. That may vanish in time, but for now, it's the one thing newspapers have that blogs, websites, etc. don't.

    I mean, really, do you trust TMZ?
     
  10. FileNotFound

    FileNotFound Well-Known Member

    That has been my homepage for nearly 15 years.
     
  11. PCLoadLetter

    PCLoadLetter Well-Known Member

    Honest answer? More than I trust my local paper for the kind of news TMZ carries.
     
  12. Doc Holliday

    Doc Holliday Well-Known Member

    I don't.
     
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