Why newspapers need to change, reason 936

Posted February 15th, 2010 by Kimberly Dowd

On Sundays, WM and I go to Starbucks for breakfast, where I purchase a Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Latte (3 points), a Vanilla Mini Sprinkle Donut (3 points) and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Hold your horses…of course I subscribe to the C-P, but I do buy the Inky on Sundays so I know what advertisers to shun. I also like their crossword puzzle.

Here is a problem with newspapers…

At the ‘Bucks, I had to pull over a second little round table to accommodate the newspaper overflow. Else I’d have half the paper on my lap and the other half half-dangling off of the table. Or an alternative would be to have WM move to another table so I could use the entire round table and his empty chair, but then I’d be deprived of his company, which simply won’t do.

Newspapers today are smaller than ever — have you ever seen a newspaper from the ’70s? They could be tents! Yet they’re still large and unwieldy in a world that’s rapidly closing in on one’s personal space.

E-readers like the iKotex iPad and the Nook* are solutions to the paper’s large footprint.

But I still like purchasing a newspaper, so that’s out for now. And what about the inevitable newspaper ooze where the sections slide out from inside as you try to pick out what you want? A smaller newspaper (thickness, not footprint) would be pretty nifty, too.

I’d LOVE to only buy the sections I read (Section A, the South Jersey section, Arts/Entertainment, Currents, Jobs & coupon inserts) and not have to deal with Sports, Cars, Homes, Parade magazine and the dinky little special sections.

That’s the model I use when reading news online, after all. I don’t have to click through high school sports stories to get to the advice column. I go right there. In my personal online news world, where I am the executive editor, I don’t ever have to read about car shows or the Eagles (pro team or aging band) or school budget news from a town I don’t live in.

But then it’d be a nightmare to sell to and lay out each section. Auto dealers are a large part of a newspaper’s ad base, and I think making their section optional wouldn’t fly. But then again, you’d guarantee that anyone who BOUGHT the Car section would be interested in their product.

And it’d be a nightmare to distribute.

Ay yi yi. I guess I’ll stick with annexing tables.

*I want a Nook so badly, but I want my e-reader to truly be a reader of all media, not just book pages. I want magazines too, but I won’t pay to read them in black and white. So I’m trying to wait until readers are affordable and come in color. I also want to make sure that I’m not going to run into a situation where Martha Stewart Living is only on the Kindle and Real Simple is only on the Sony and Beadwork is only on the Nook.

« You know you’ve been online too long when…       Diet update: Week Six »