Morning Paper in sleepers?

[jis]

I regularly read the NY Times, the Washington Post and the Boston Globe on line through actual Digital subscription. My morning ritual is to carry my big mug of tea made English/Indian style, and then sit back in my recliner in front of my 25" dual display to read the papers. When bored/overwhelmed I flip back and forth to AU and other we sites... Works out rather well. Retirement has its definite advantages.

When I am on the road the iPad has to substitute for the large display.

The only downside is that I have to have access to digital telephone signal of some sort so as to be able to WiFi tether my reading device to my digital network access device. I do not in general use pubic WiFi, just to avoid a popular vector for hacking.

The reason I went full digital is that I could never quite find a fully reliable deliverer of the paper Paper where I lived, first in NJ and then now in Florida.

 

[dwebarts]

I regularly read the NY Times, the Washington Post and the Boston Globe on line through actual Digital subscription. My morning ritual is to carry my big mug of tea made English/Indian style, and then sit back in my recliner in front of my 25" dual display to read the papers. When bored/overwhelmed I flip back and forth to AU and other we sites... Works out rather well. Retirement has its definite advantages.

<snip>

I have online subscriptions to the Post and NY Times, with periodic subscriptions to other U.S. and international papers for a month or two to add perspective.

 

[Trollopian]

I'm not in the 1% that has homes in multiple cities and an elevator for my car (I don't have a car either). But with modest and very walkable apartments in two cities, joined by the Capitol Limited, I get both cities' newspapers online. It's just too hard to stop and restart delivery. Less waste of newsprint and ink is a bonus. The real bonus is reading the comments online. Mostly banal, occasionally infuriating, sometimes incisive and better than the articles themselves.

 

[20th Century Rider]

Although it may be environmentally friendly not to use newsprint... it IS environmentally friendly to print on recycled paper. More than that... with broadcast media one is forced to endure vast amounts of time viewing repetitive but with a paper in hand one is free to roam at will.

Yup! I sure do like to have newspaper in hand with the morning and evening news!

Why are we losing all the good things ???

 

[PVD]

One thing that certainly changed where I live is the disappearance of kids delivering the paper before they went to school. Now the papers are delivered by adults with long routes, and I don't need a morning paper that shows up 2 hours after I get out of bed...

 

[jis]

Although it may be environmentally friendly not to use newsprint... it IS environmentally friendly to print on recycled paper. More than that... with broadcast media one is forced to endure vast amounts of time viewing repetitive but with a paper in hand one is free to roam at will.

I do not touch broadcast media (as in TV) except for specific event streaming like the recent launch of Inspiration 4. Reading newspapers online has the flexibility of reading news media on paper except for the ability to mark up the paper, which I did not do even when I read it on real paper way back when.

Frankly, personally I do not miss the newspapers on real paper any more.

 

[neroden]

I grew up reading both the Detroit Free Press in the morning before school and the Detroit News in the evening.

I did start reading news more online in the late nineties and mostly online in the 21st century.

It started when I didn't see anything about Isaac Asimov's death in the printed New York TImes until more than 24 hours after his death. The circumstances were new for the time, as I'd learned on it on the SFRT Forum on GEnie almost immediately. One of the writers had posted "Janet called. Isaac's gone."

More and more I started noticing that I wasn't reading much new in daily newspapers other than advertising.

Local papers have been annihilated for the most part. Kudos to the valiant few that continue to look at local issues that are otherwise ignored. Many/most remaining local papers consist of wire service reprints and advertiser content. The world needs good journalism more than ever. It also needs good editors, looking at the typos and grammatical errors that are increasing by the day.

I am insanely lucky to live in Ithaca NY, where we have more than five decent local newspapers, mostly free weeklies (plus a few more bad ones). Ithaca Times (ithaca.com), Tompkins Weekly, 14850.com (online only), Ithaca Voice (online only), Cornell Daily Sun (student-run). We just have a lot of people who care, I guess? Our traditional daily was bought out by Gannett and is crap though.

 

[20th Century Rider]

I do not touch broadcast media (as in TV) except for specific event streaming like the recent launch of Inspiration 4. Reading newspapers online has the flexibility of reading news media on paper except for the ability to mark up the paper, which I did not do even when I read it on real paper way back when.

Frankly, personally I do not miss the newspapers on real paper any more.

Newspapers can be highly opinionated and biased which discredits their true value to the reader... however there are still a few good papers that publish newsworthy and interesting articles on recycled newsprint. Technology short-cuts don't always cut it for many of us.

And as the Amtrak train pulls out of the station and those Iphone signal bars diminish, nothing is quite as nice as a newspaper in hand. The stories and even the ads can give insights into the small community to perhaps return to and visit in the future.

 

[neroden]

Just to dig out one of my old potted essays:

Every writer has opinions and biases. I trust a writer more if they admit their opinions and biases, while distinguishing those clearly from the facts and evidence. Dishonesty about the facts -- not OK. Opinionated journalism -- fine. I can read stories about the same event in five British newspapers, with five different spins, but with ***the same facts***. This is the way to do it. That's why I love having *five* weeklies in Ithaca; I can read five versions of the same story, and figure out what are the facts vs. the writer's attitude.

The US "journalistic objectivity" cult was created by Hearst as an excuse for why it was OK for him to have newspaper monopolies. It is still not OK to have newspaper monopolies!

 

[20th Century Rider]

Just to dig out one of my old potted essays:

Every writer has opinions and biases. I trust a writer more if they admit their opinions and biases, while distinguishing those clearly from the facts and evidence. Dishonesty about the facts -- not OK. Opinionated journalism -- fine. I can read stories about the same event in five British newspapers, with five different spins, but with ***the same facts***. This is the way to do it. That's why I love having *five* weeklies in Ithaca; I can read five versions of the same story, and figure out what are the facts vs. the writer's attitude.

The US "journalistic objectivity" cult was created by Hearst as an excuse for why it was OK for him to have newspaper monopolies. It is still not OK to have newspaper monopolies!

I agree... there have been many issues with monopolized newspapers - the same kind of corporate greed as we see today in just about every industry... not to mention that the building of the nations railroads involved many abuses.

One doesn't have to go far to find corporate greed... have you checked the rising price of gas today???

 

[neroden]

One doesn't have to go far to find corporate greed... have you checked the rising price of gas today???

I actually haven't checked the price of gas recently since my car is electric! I did study the oil markets as an investor a while back. I believe what's happening is actually something I predicted: as the oil business shrinks, they are losing economies of scale.

Crude oil price is down, gas price is up, but profits are down! That's because the refineries and the distributors have fixed costs and have to recover their fixed costs out of the gas price. If they sell less gas, they have to raise the price to cover their fixed costs (trucks, refinery operations, etc)

 

[20th Century Rider]

I actually haven't checked the price of gas recently since my car is electric! I did study the oil markets as an investor a while back. I believe what's happening is actually something I predicted: as the oil business shrinks, they are losing economies of scale.

Crude oil price is down, gas price is up, but profits are down! That's because the refineries and the distributors have fixed costs and have to recover their fixed costs out of the gas price. If they sell less gas, they have to raise the price to cover their fixed costs (trucks, refinery operations, etc)

Lucky you to have an electric car... really expensive now - new or used! I have an old Toyota with 175,000 miles. The door locks don't work, air conditioning only works in the winter but it does have a tape player and I keep the engine and tires in good working condition. With the price of things now it is more cost effective for me to just keep that car and eventually run it into the ground... in this small town I can go weeks on a tank of fuel... and when I want to travel I go into EUG for Amtrak.

So where there's a will, there's a way... that little folks like me can buck up against the conglomerates!

After all is said and done, trains are our finest environmentally friendly transit.

Although maybe sometime in the after life I will be able to get an electric car!

 

[jis]

And as the Amtrak train pulls out of the station and those Iphone signal bars diminish, nothing is quite as nice as a newspaper in hand. The stories and even the ads can give insights into the small community to perhaps return to and visit in the future.

Well, when there is no newspaper to be had actually one has more access to news even through the fading iPhone bars.

Frankly I am frequently reminded of the tension presented in the TV serial "Downton Abbey" between those that embrace new technologies and those that reject them, and the discussions around that that are presented beautifully there. The one that specially comes to mind is when Robert (Lord Grantham) and Carson (the Butler) both vehemently oppose acquiring a radio, until George V King Emperor chooses to broadcast his speech by radio. Rose (the teenager cousin), whose every attempt to get the Lord to agree to get a radio were rejected out of hand, finally did not have to do anything to get her way with the help of King George V. Just a random aside. Interestingly Lady Grantham (an American by birth) was not opposed to the radio.

And yes, I do use my good fortunes to do things that I consider to be environmentally friendly on the whole. I drive a plugin car mostly in electric mode and it is charged with electricity generated from the Sun on my rooftop and excess stored in batteries bolted to the side of the house. Excess beyond that is net-metered back to the grid for later consumption against credit.

 

[20th Century Rider]

One of the joys of riding the EB is running into the stations along the way and picking up some glossy promotional materials about the immediate area... to read as the train departs. Although the expense and the resource use is not environmentally friendly... it does become a keepsake of the trip... and an incentive to maybe return some day spending some money for lodging and restaurants and boosting the economy. Many of these small towns are not doing well... especially with COVID hitting tourism.

And yes... technology works well with tourism too. Check out this blog from two days ago...

https://www.roamingaroundtheworld.com/amtrak-empire-builder-train-review/

 

[PVD]

Well, when there is no newspaper to be had actually one has more access to news even through the fading iPhone bars.

Frankly I am frequently reminded of the tension presented in the TV serial "Downton Abbey" between those that embrace new technologies and those that reject them, and the discussions around that that are presented beautifully there. The one that specially comes to mind is when Robert (Lord Grantham) and Carson (the Butler) both vehemently oppose acquiring a radio, until George V King Emperor chooses to broadcast his speech by radio. Rose (the teenager cousin), whose every attempt to get the Lord to agree to get a radio were rejected out of hand, finally did not have to do anything to get her way with the help of King George V. Just a random aside. Interestingly Lady Grantham (an American by birth) was not opposed to the radio.

And yes, I do use my good fortunes to do things that I consider to be environmentally friendly on the whole. I drive a plugin car mostly in electric mode and it is charged with electricity generated from the Sun on my rooftop and excess stored in batteries bolted to the side of the house. Excess beyond that is net-metered back to the grid for later consumption against credit.

and in about 2 hours I will start up my fall round of "alternative power concepts for the electrical apprentice" 2 classes start this week, a M-W and a Tu-Th each for 8 night... reminds me I have to ditch the bathrobe and put on a shirt and at least a pair of shorts so there are no Zoom accidents..

 

[Charles785]

It's probably been covered pretty thoroughly by now but I would add that I'm one who enjoys reading a printed newspaper, and I always thought it was a nice touch and welcome amenity to have a morning newspaper slipped under my roommette door. And it seems to me they were local newspapers.

Of course if I could really have my way I wouldn't mind having both a local paper and a national paper. (I think most folks probably consider the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times much stronger journalistically - with more interesting stories- than USA today.)

Seems to me reading goes hand in hand with long distance passenger rail travel.

 

[Willbridge]

I always enjoyed getting a morning paper and in fact will occasionally buy one if a station has a coin operated paper box. Towards the end, more and more places opted for giving copies of USA Today instead of local papers, which I don't really care for. In today's world where much of the news (seemingly) is bad, it was refreshing to read about things that weren't bad, especially in the smaller places. The morning paper from Klamath Falls, especially, was like that. I enjoyed reading about Mrs. Calabash winning the blue ribbon for her prize chrysanthemums at the local fair, or the Klamath Falls Dodgers winning the American Legion baseball championship. Or in the police blotter, instead of robberies, murders, and riots, reading about police being dispatched to 1313 Mockingbird Lane on a report of dogs tipping over garbage cans. THAT'S the kind of news I like seeing.

You need this paper...


Unfortunately the print edition ended in 2013. As mentioned above, there are aspects of print journalism or local facsimiles online that are unique in getting to understand communities.

 

[Cal]

One of the joys of riding the EB is running into the stations along the way and picking up some glossy promotional materials about the immediate area... to read as the train departs. Although the expense and the resource use is not environmentally friendly... it does become a keepsake of the trip... and an incentive to maybe return some day spending some money for lodging and restaurants and boosting the economy. Many of these small towns are not doing well... especially with COVID hitting tourism.

And yes... technology works well with tourism too. Check out this blog from two days ago...

https://www.roamingaroundtheworld.com/amtrak-empire-builder-train-review/

Good read.

 

[Dakota 400]

Of course if I could really have my way I wouldn't mind having both a local paper and a national paper.

Once upon a time, when one flew, the flight attendants would offer a choice of papers. That's been quite awhile ago. Amtrak isn't the only carrier that has experienced cutbacks.