The Daily Paper... Do You Still Subscribe?

After I make a cup of coffee and feed the dog, my next step is to bring in the newspaper. Yes, I'm still a subscriber, even though the price has crept up to $28 a month. I like settling down at the table in the morning with my coffee and the front pages, or relaxing in my armchair later to read the Life section and work the Sudoko puzzle.

But pundits tell us the day of the printed newspaper is numbered. Soon we'll all be reading the news on our tablets, they say. And the personal finance and tech experts almost uniformly tell folks to drop their newspaper subscriptions to save money. But I'm not ready to give up my daily paper. Following are some really good reasons I think having a daily paper delivered is still worth the price.

Browsing a physical, printed newspaper copy is still the fastest, most efficient way to find and read the news that interests me. Random, small local articles, especially, are something I almost never find in the electronic edition, but will stumble across in the local section of the print paper. These have tips on events of interest, people I know, stores and restaurants that are opening or closing, etc. and are invaluable for living a life that is hooked into my community. I just don't get that with electronic versions.

My local paper does an excellent job of “muckraking” and if subscribers don’t support their efforts, we’ll all be the worse for it. Our government representatives and institutions are venal and corrupt enough as it is! We’ve had quite a few local and state-wide exposes in recent years, all fueled by the local press, which have resulted in cleanup of government agencies, downfall of crooked politicians, etc.

A lot of people enjoy the crossword and other puzzles almost all newspapers provide. I'm personally hooked on Sudoko puzzles, and my paper has a daily one that is quite good. This is not available in the electronic edition, and besides I’d have the time and material expense of printing it out. I try to print as little as possible, because those printer cartridges aren’t cheap - even when you refill them at home, as I do. 

I have a square newspaper-sized basket I keep in a corner, and into which I chuck past issues. I use the newsprint for various purposes: 

• I use a sheet of newsprint to collect potato or other vegetable peelings as I work in the kitchen, then wrapping them up and disposing in the trash in a nice, non-messy way. 
• A few layers of newspaper, topped by a single paper towel, is a good way to drain fried foods, such as bacon, minimizing the use of paper towels. 
• In fact, newspapers make a good layer underneath any small, messy project, such as gluing, painting, stamping and so on. 
• Crumpled newsprint works very well to clean windows, mirrors, the front of the microwave, and other glass items. I originally learned this from a Heloise (remember her?) book of household hints. There is something about newsprint and printer’s ink that does a great job of polishing, with just enough abrasiveness to remove bits of soil or oil. 
• I used newspapers when house-training my puppy, and have continued to maintain a little “potty tray” for him to use indoors at night or in bad weather. It consists of a tray which is just the top of a large plastic storage bin, the kind you might use to store out-of-season clothes. I line the tray with several layers of newspapers. When he uses it, it’s simple to fold the papers up from the edges, so as not to soil my fingers, and put it all in the trash. This general system is very popular these days, especially in urban areas where people keep dogs in apartments, but most people go to a big box pet store and spend big bucks on “special” plastic trays and expensive scented “piddle pads.” I've found newspapers work very well. 
• Layers of newspaper make good insulation. When I have to take a covered hot dish to a pot luck or party, I wrap the hot dish tightly in foil, to avoid spills, and then in thick layers of newspaper. This really works - the dish stays hot for a long time. This works in the summer with cold or frozen dishes, too. I don't drive, so when the weather is hot and I want to buy ice cream, I tuck a stack of folded newspaper in my shopping cart. I then wrap the ice cream carton in plenty of newspaper before putting it in my cart and it doesn't arrive home all drippy and half melted even when I have to wait a long time for the bus. 

These are all good reasons to keep me a subscriber to my local newspaper. I like all the uses I put my newspaper to - so many that I don't put all that much newspaper in my recycle bin. But the most important reasons are really the first two. I can scan the entire paper very quickly when it's in a print edition, much more so than in any electronic edition. But even more importantly, newspapers have been a cornerstone of our democracy for centuries now. Many of the problems with our governmental institutions these days is, I believe, a result of a citizenry that is not well informed. Newspapers seem to do a better job of informing us of many sides of important issues, in less time, than any kind of electronic media I've yet seen. Maybe there needs to be some re-design of electronic news to make it more comparable to printed newspapers. I'm not sure, but for now I'm still reading my news on paper.