I have my local newspaper delivered every day, and I habitually read at least some of it over my morning coffee. They tell us that print newspapers are rapidly dying, and that before long we'll have to get our news digitally, from our computers, tablets, or phones. I think that is a shame, and I suspect many of us retirement-age folks feel the same. Another day, perhaps I'll talk about why I so much prefer my print edition.
But lately I've been focusing on the so-called "Life" sections. Remember the Life sections from years back? I can remember when it was the "Women's Section." It was for the ladies, and the Sports section was for the gentlemen. I remember that the Women's section contained a lot of social reporting, with fascinating photographs: balls, parties, fundraisers, and a glimpse at the gowns or other attire of prominent attendees. On Wednesday there were recipes and grocery ads. And there were event schedules for all manner of things, from classes to organizational meetings to festivals and fairs. The TV and movie theater schedules could also be found there. There was a lot of local content, with informative columns provided by area educators, health professionals, gardening experts, and other people with pertinent information to share. Much of that is gone, now, or just isn't the same.
Not long back, our paper decided to focus reporting only on local news and politics, so now Section One is all local, and they give us a USA Today insert that provides national news, financial news, and a Life section that appears to assume that our lives consist almost completely of consuming commercial media. Today's Life page is 100% about TV and movies, shows and stars, plus a book review and super-short blurbs about an author and the 5 top best-selling books. That's it.
There's a longer USA Today "Life" section on Sunday... six pages of news about films, celebrities, what celebrities are wearing, blah, blah, blah. A page on travel, and a crossword puzzle. One short, inane article on "reaching your goals." This replaces a magazine insert that used to have some good recipes and useful articles along with a moderate amount of entertainment news.
Our daily local "Life" section is a bit longer, with daily themes: family, education, health, food, "style," and entertainment. We get a weather page, comics, a few puzzles, a list of today's celebrity birthdays (yawn) and occasional miscellaneous articles culled from national wire services. Sadly, almost all the local content is gone, especially anything that isn't virtually an advertisement. No more honest restaurant reviews, almost no reporting of social events. The kinda-ok local recipe column, which featured recipe requests from readers, was cut to every two weeks. There's usually a gardening column once a week, which sometimes has useful information, and a very abbreviated evening TV schedule.
Really, no wonder newspaper subscriptions are declining. In order to suck out the last penny of profit, managements have cut reporting, especially on non-political local and women's interest topics. Most are part of big media corporations, and I assume that fuels the reporting (advertising, actually) of so much entertainment news and gossip. They've abandoned pursuing their readers' interests in favor of pushing their own.
And I think that's really a shame. Historically, newspapers have been a source of local cohesion as well as information. With a print newspaper, you just pick it up and can quickly scan the hundreds of items on its pages, stopping to read more thoroughly only those things that are of interest. Local newsletters, blogs, Facebook pages, and websites have sprung up in an attempt to close the gap. But I've found that it's very time-consuming to pursue all those scattered sources. I've heard that attendance at many local functions has fallen off, as it has become more difficult to reach a wide audience. Newspaper advertising has become increasingly expensive, and readership is way down. There really are very few other ways to reach a lot of people. As a result, we miss out on many interesting opportunities.
For example, I was at the library recently and was practically dragged into the big meeting room by one of the librarians, who was trying to round up a few people to attend a lecture by two local authors. It was fascinating, but embarrassingly there were only a handful of people present, despite the fact that both authors are nationally known! It had been scheduled too late to go in the library's quarterly catalog, and they apparently couldn't figure out how to publicize it widely. Had they been able to do so, I'm sure the room would have been packed, as both authors are very popular here.
And this sort of thing is happening on a daily basis. We learn all about national celebrities and the movies and TV shows, but we find out less and less about what is going on in our own communities (except sports and movie showings, of course). As a retiree on a limited income, I particularly like to find out about local low-cost or free events I can take advantage of. I guess I need to search for more online information sources. I hope these will burgeon as our local newspaper continues to drop the ball.
But lately I've been focusing on the so-called "Life" sections. Remember the Life sections from years back? I can remember when it was the "Women's Section." It was for the ladies, and the Sports section was for the gentlemen. I remember that the Women's section contained a lot of social reporting, with fascinating photographs: balls, parties, fundraisers, and a glimpse at the gowns or other attire of prominent attendees. On Wednesday there were recipes and grocery ads. And there were event schedules for all manner of things, from classes to organizational meetings to festivals and fairs. The TV and movie theater schedules could also be found there. There was a lot of local content, with informative columns provided by area educators, health professionals, gardening experts, and other people with pertinent information to share. Much of that is gone, now, or just isn't the same.
There's a longer USA Today "Life" section on Sunday... six pages of news about films, celebrities, what celebrities are wearing, blah, blah, blah. A page on travel, and a crossword puzzle. One short, inane article on "reaching your goals." This replaces a magazine insert that used to have some good recipes and useful articles along with a moderate amount of entertainment news.
Our daily local "Life" section is a bit longer, with daily themes: family, education, health, food, "style," and entertainment. We get a weather page, comics, a few puzzles, a list of today's celebrity birthdays (yawn) and occasional miscellaneous articles culled from national wire services. Sadly, almost all the local content is gone, especially anything that isn't virtually an advertisement. No more honest restaurant reviews, almost no reporting of social events. The kinda-ok local recipe column, which featured recipe requests from readers, was cut to every two weeks. There's usually a gardening column once a week, which sometimes has useful information, and a very abbreviated evening TV schedule.
Really, no wonder newspaper subscriptions are declining. In order to suck out the last penny of profit, managements have cut reporting, especially on non-political local and women's interest topics. Most are part of big media corporations, and I assume that fuels the reporting (advertising, actually) of so much entertainment news and gossip. They've abandoned pursuing their readers' interests in favor of pushing their own.
And I think that's really a shame. Historically, newspapers have been a source of local cohesion as well as information. With a print newspaper, you just pick it up and can quickly scan the hundreds of items on its pages, stopping to read more thoroughly only those things that are of interest. Local newsletters, blogs, Facebook pages, and websites have sprung up in an attempt to close the gap. But I've found that it's very time-consuming to pursue all those scattered sources. I've heard that attendance at many local functions has fallen off, as it has become more difficult to reach a wide audience. Newspaper advertising has become increasingly expensive, and readership is way down. There really are very few other ways to reach a lot of people. As a result, we miss out on many interesting opportunities.
For example, I was at the library recently and was practically dragged into the big meeting room by one of the librarians, who was trying to round up a few people to attend a lecture by two local authors. It was fascinating, but embarrassingly there were only a handful of people present, despite the fact that both authors are nationally known! It had been scheduled too late to go in the library's quarterly catalog, and they apparently couldn't figure out how to publicize it widely. Had they been able to do so, I'm sure the room would have been packed, as both authors are very popular here.
And this sort of thing is happening on a daily basis. We learn all about national celebrities and the movies and TV shows, but we find out less and less about what is going on in our own communities (except sports and movie showings, of course). As a retiree on a limited income, I particularly like to find out about local low-cost or free events I can take advantage of. I guess I need to search for more online information sources. I hope these will burgeon as our local newspaper continues to drop the ball.
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