Back when I was growing up, There was always some kid delivering the paper (yes, I realize I’m ageing myself here). Back then, typically, the morning newspaper was how you got your daily dose of news. They still have people who deliver the paper now, but it’s people in vans who service a much larger area. The issue that I have is that the morning newspaper is now a bit old hat.
Digital news taking over
With every news provider leaning more and more on their websites, It means that there is less of a need for hard copy paper news. Even now, every story that gets printed out goes up on the website. The Newspaper has become nearly redundant. You can get the news on your smartphone just as quickly as anything else, why would anyone want to go out to get the paper? The sheer multitude of information that is available through the internet from News sources, digital magazines and from (ahem) blogs makes trying to find information from a single source less useful than it used to be.
Up to the minute information
It amazes me how the news is no longer “When we have updates for you, we’ll get back to you on this.” I was watching a report on the news a few months ago, and the problem was that they didn’t have an update. The reporter kept repeating, “We still have no updates, but here’s what we know so far” and then dove into what they said 10 minutes earlier. Maybe it’s just me, but if you don’t have any updates, then perhaps we don’t need updating that you don’t have any updates? With everyone concerned with what’s happening this exact minute, there seems to be less and less of a need for an actual paper which only can tell you what happened a few hours ago. With everything being google-able, It’s hard to use the Newspaper in its previous form as a reference source. Stories now will be able to take a turn at a moment’s notice and the News
Environmental thoughts
While I’m sure that most of the newspapers that go out by now will be able to boast that they are all printed on recycled paper, it’s still something that we need to consider. I’m not a hardcore environmentalist, but I did get a seriously guilty feeling when the Newspaper used to get delivered to me. I think that it’s essential to be able to take in the news in a way that won’t hinder the environment. I’m sure that there is an argument that says using recycled paper is better for the environment than the pile-up of smartphones and batteries, but I would not be the one to make that argument.
While I did read the paper a bit growing up, I have never really sat down and read the paper as an adult. I’ve had far too many options (One of which I ‘ll be talking about next week), which has allowed me to get more news than from a single source. I believe that it’s essential to be able to be well informed, but I also think that the sources where that information is should keep up with the ways that people seek out that information. As far as I can see, the news sources have been able to do this (They have websites, and some have their apps for smartphones), but they still have the hard copy media. I’m not trying to put the people who deliver papers out of a job, but in the past, if there is a more efficient way of doing things, the people who are still doing the service, they end up looking for new work. Have we gotten to that point with the people who deliver the paper? Genuinely I do not know. According to News Media Canada, in 2013, the number of newspapers delivered (Both daily and weekly) on an average day dropped from 5.8 million deliveries on an average day to just over 5 million in 2016. In 2018 they were saying that 8 out of 10 Canadians read the Newspaper. That’s great, but they include people who read the news on their smartphones. I think that at the end of the day, it’s more important to know that people are reading the news than knowing how they are reading it.
How do you take your news?
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