I miss newspapers. Their physicality, smell, weekend comics, editorial cartoons, and their beginning to end experience. Newspapers today, the ones remaining, have shrunk in size and cannot compete with more timely digital coverage. I switched my newspaper subscriptions to digital because delivery of the physical versions was erratic at best. The digital experience is terrible for me. Especially since their formats now look like an endless blog. With endless links and distractions, videos, etc. I miss cutting out essays and saving the clipping in my journal or mailing to a friend. A former editorial cartoonist for two newspapers, I fondly remember the buzz of the newsroom, and editorial meetings. And the fun of seeing my cartoons in the paper. Yes, digital is easy and you can read your local paper anywhere on your device. But there’s no joy in it. Which is why I favor physical books. Their physicality. Easier on the eyes. I can slip notes in them and re-read years later. Call me a dinosaur, but increasingly, I’m tired of the entire blinking, glaring, soulless digital experience.
"I can slip notes in them and re-read years later" is something that I've always considered underrated. Although I didn't intend at first to make it a habit, I often use a bookshop receipt as a bookmark, so that now a good portion of my books still includes a little story—with the bookstores from when I've traveled the most notable. Thank you for the comment, John.
I have similar newspaper memories so I suspect your memory is more accurate than the credit you give yourself. I vividly remember running to the door with a few dimes or quarters when the paper delivery boy came by to collect. His tip was a rounded up few cents, which was a reward for bringing the paper all the way up to the door instead of leaving it in the front yard.
If you stretch your memory, I wonder if you might remember learning to read by reading the comics at that round kitchen table. It led to my ability to read sideways and upside down with the same ease as right-side-up as our table was small enough to lean across and read together.
Your description of the folding and cutting of an ambulatory paper is so precise and accurate. I wonder if my tendency to re-fold tissue paper according to the pattern and to fold table cloths and sheets with precision is connected to a real respect for a re-assembled newspaper for the next reader, even if it’s missing a few geometric shapes similar to gerrymandered voting blocks. “What happened here? (Gesturing to and looking at us through a hole) I wonder if we missed a payment.”
I marvel at the variety of terms we used too. There was the “sports page”, which was its own independent, multiple page section, but the “obits section” (reading that was a practice I didn’t know was unusual and perceived as morbid by others until many years later) were one or several pages of a section. Comics were “the funnies” and the editorials were sometimes skipped entirely and other times clipped and shared.
However, all of this misses the mark. You were describing a different world for information consumers. I think my children would laugh and wonder what possessed me if I told them I wanted to read a daily paper which was printed on paper.
I enjoy the New York Times in both digital and electronic format. I get the morning digest and skim through the headlines clicking on items of interest to read the full article. I find these easy to forward to others, hoping that they have a subscription. I also found that The Times has fewer ads than other newspapers, with more pictures and videos that make the news come alive. I’ve gotten lost in a well formulated article that takes advantage of the dynamic webpage with pictures changing with the mouse.
At lunch a good percentage of the time I will still find the New York Times in the café, and will thoroughly read the front page and most of page 2 and 3. Depending on how busy the office is (or if a coworker joins me to talk) I’ll read the rest of the articles started on page 1. Because the table is big I enjoy only folding it on the spine. The other day I was conscious of how I folded the paper like previous generations when I tried to read it out in the breezy courtyard.
Lovely read. I could see my dad at the kitchen table with the newspaper spread wide open as you shared your story.
It makes me think about how I'd like to model reading, and media consumption in general, to my kids. I often read when they're sleeping so they rarely have an opportunity to catch me in the act. I think that's a shame. As for the news, I read the NYT on my phone in the morning over coffee and I try to make a point to explain I'm reading the news to my kids. But honestly it doesn't look any different than if I was on social media, or substack, or checking my emails, so what I'm really modeling is staring at my phone first thing in the morning. Not great, in my opinion.
Thank you for the kind words, Jessica. You have some interesting thoughts about modeling behavior. I'm not sure if there's actually a solution, although by just considering the question, I believe, you are probably affecting what they observe in a good way.
I miss newspapers. Their physicality, smell, weekend comics, editorial cartoons, and their beginning to end experience. Newspapers today, the ones remaining, have shrunk in size and cannot compete with more timely digital coverage. I switched my newspaper subscriptions to digital because delivery of the physical versions was erratic at best. The digital experience is terrible for me. Especially since their formats now look like an endless blog. With endless links and distractions, videos, etc. I miss cutting out essays and saving the clipping in my journal or mailing to a friend. A former editorial cartoonist for two newspapers, I fondly remember the buzz of the newsroom, and editorial meetings. And the fun of seeing my cartoons in the paper. Yes, digital is easy and you can read your local paper anywhere on your device. But there’s no joy in it. Which is why I favor physical books. Their physicality. Easier on the eyes. I can slip notes in them and re-read years later. Call me a dinosaur, but increasingly, I’m tired of the entire blinking, glaring, soulless digital experience.
"I can slip notes in them and re-read years later" is something that I've always considered underrated. Although I didn't intend at first to make it a habit, I often use a bookshop receipt as a bookmark, so that now a good portion of my books still includes a little story—with the bookstores from when I've traveled the most notable. Thank you for the comment, John.
I have similar newspaper memories so I suspect your memory is more accurate than the credit you give yourself. I vividly remember running to the door with a few dimes or quarters when the paper delivery boy came by to collect. His tip was a rounded up few cents, which was a reward for bringing the paper all the way up to the door instead of leaving it in the front yard.
If you stretch your memory, I wonder if you might remember learning to read by reading the comics at that round kitchen table. It led to my ability to read sideways and upside down with the same ease as right-side-up as our table was small enough to lean across and read together.
Your description of the folding and cutting of an ambulatory paper is so precise and accurate. I wonder if my tendency to re-fold tissue paper according to the pattern and to fold table cloths and sheets with precision is connected to a real respect for a re-assembled newspaper for the next reader, even if it’s missing a few geometric shapes similar to gerrymandered voting blocks. “What happened here? (Gesturing to and looking at us through a hole) I wonder if we missed a payment.”
I marvel at the variety of terms we used too. There was the “sports page”, which was its own independent, multiple page section, but the “obits section” (reading that was a practice I didn’t know was unusual and perceived as morbid by others until many years later) were one or several pages of a section. Comics were “the funnies” and the editorials were sometimes skipped entirely and other times clipped and shared.
However, all of this misses the mark. You were describing a different world for information consumers. I think my children would laugh and wonder what possessed me if I told them I wanted to read a daily paper which was printed on paper.
I enjoy the New York Times in both digital and electronic format. I get the morning digest and skim through the headlines clicking on items of interest to read the full article. I find these easy to forward to others, hoping that they have a subscription. I also found that The Times has fewer ads than other newspapers, with more pictures and videos that make the news come alive. I’ve gotten lost in a well formulated article that takes advantage of the dynamic webpage with pictures changing with the mouse.
At lunch a good percentage of the time I will still find the New York Times in the café, and will thoroughly read the front page and most of page 2 and 3. Depending on how busy the office is (or if a coworker joins me to talk) I’ll read the rest of the articles started on page 1. Because the table is big I enjoy only folding it on the spine. The other day I was conscious of how I folded the paper like previous generations when I tried to read it out in the breezy courtyard.
You’ve written a timely article.
Lovely read. I could see my dad at the kitchen table with the newspaper spread wide open as you shared your story.
It makes me think about how I'd like to model reading, and media consumption in general, to my kids. I often read when they're sleeping so they rarely have an opportunity to catch me in the act. I think that's a shame. As for the news, I read the NYT on my phone in the morning over coffee and I try to make a point to explain I'm reading the news to my kids. But honestly it doesn't look any different than if I was on social media, or substack, or checking my emails, so what I'm really modeling is staring at my phone first thing in the morning. Not great, in my opinion.
Thank you for the kind words, Jessica. You have some interesting thoughts about modeling behavior. I'm not sure if there's actually a solution, although by just considering the question, I believe, you are probably affecting what they observe in a good way.