Dec 02 2008
Fifty Years of my Daily Newspaper
For the past FIFTY Years, my day has begun with the Daily Newspaper
I love the smell of the printed newspaper. I eagerly anticipate the morning headlines. I always read the comics page.
This has been part of my lifestyle since I was TEN years old. I think I began with the comics pages and then progressed to the Front Page, the Sports Page, and then the remaining sections. When I was a kid we also had an “evening” paper in our town; it’s most distinguishing feature was the Orange paper used for the front and back page sheet. It was called the “Leader.” The Leader was eventually purchased by the morning paper and soon ended publication. That seems to be the fate of so many daily newspapers around the country. I find it to be a sad development–first laying off some workers to cut expenses and then eventually just ending publication.
I don’t think the daily newspaper is dead, but its “hey-day” has certainly passed. I used to read several newspapers from around the United States and the World when I would visit the library during my high school and college years. The most popular papers were on those wood rod newspaper “rollers” that would each hold one paper.
I’m sorry to see so many newspaper reporters being laid off during economic hard times. Television and now the internet has proven to be just too much competition. Only the largest papers in each city are likely to survive. Editorial cartoonists are having a rough time keeping their positions too. Syndication seems to be the only way to maintain a job as an editorial cartoonist anymore. Nationally syndicated columnists also seem to be pushing aside the “local” columnists and contributing writers.
I read a lot of newspapers on the internet now. I would hope that the internet will eventually be the salvation of local newspapers, adding enough advertising revenue to survive while becoming accessible to a larger geographical area.
I personally still like having the newspaper in my hands, with the morning coffee. These are two very familiar and satisfying smells that the internet can never replace.
