The Portland (Maine) Press Herald just announced that it will no longer print a paper on Mondays - there will be only a digital edition on that day.
I remember when we moved to Maine in the '80s, you could choose whether you wanted the morning edition or the evening edition delivered to your house, Monday through Saturday, in addition to the extensive Sunday paper. Years ago, they eliminated the evening edition. And now Monday is gone!
I know that with our strong economy, the management is having a hard time finding people to deliver papers. Sometimes, managers have to do it themselves. Some days, we don’t get a paper until later in the morning.
I posted about this on my Facebook page and got a lot of responses about the status of my friends’ papers, so I thought it would be an interesting discussion here.
Our paper (blah I don’t really care for it) went from a daily printed paper in the last year to online version only on M and T and then print/online version W-Sunday this year. While I originally heard lots of objection I haven’t heard much backlash since. Just kind of weird that they could determine that we don’t need print news on certain days - you can’t control when news happens!
I pay for many many newspaper subscriptions including one in my own area. All online so I’m not sure of status. . I get regular calls from The Atlanta Constitution Journal and the Miami Herald asking me if I want local delivery. They seem taken aback when I say I live in the Chicago area. They all seem desperate to up paper distribution.
This development has been coming for a long time. To me, it is slow death to the cumbersome, time consuming process of reflection.
How are book sales doing?
It takes more than a few sentences to develop a thought. It takes more than emotional spitfire to develop a healthy society. Journalism was supposed to be a profession and not just a sales chart.
I have a subscription to the local paper where I get a print edition delivered Fri, Sat, Sunday and digital otherwise. Frankly, the quality of the paper is poor and it got pricey to have the daily delivery. I DO like having my subscription and I like having the print paper in the mornings. It is printed somewhere else now and the sports content is not up to date in the print edition, so you have to get online anyway. I get a print WSJ (also have digital) every day through work, which I really enjoy.
We get the San Diego Union Tribune every day and I’m not comfortable eating breakfast without a physical paper next to me. I have read the online edition when there’s been a missed delivery, but it just isn’t the same. I’m a creature of habit!
The paper was bought last year along with the LATimes from a conglomerate by a biotech zillionaire. He seems to be gung ho on keeping the paper alive so hopefully it will survive.
DH gets a paper edition of The Wall Street Journal delivered daily, and also has an online subscription to the Chicago Tribune.
Like @MomofWildChild, we have a subscription to the local paper and get a print edition three days a week. I’ve been a subscriber for 35 years, and it saddens me to see how poor the quality has become.
Very few local columnists, less and less local content, more and more errors/misspellings, and greater emphasis on infotainment over real issues - seriously, I really miss my old Free Press. I keep thinking I’ll just bite the bullet and cancel my subscription, but I’ve always liked the feel and smell of a paper newspaper. Just call me Scout the Dinosaur.
I’m not the best person to ask since I get a daily print subscription to the NY Times and our (horrible) local paper (but it’s got comics, horoscopes, and some local news). I have a digital subscription to the Times (plus an add on for the online crossword) and the Washington Post, and I support a microlocal online paper run by a journalist in town who I know and trust. One of these days, I’ll succumb to the Guardian’s requests for me to support them financially as well…
DH and I still enjoy reading a print paper with breakfast but the local paper is mostly ads although it does come 7 days per week. I think I regularly count 5 pages of ads to 1 page of content. At well over $300 per year I’d love to cancel but DH refuses after 35 years. I enjoy my WSJ - much better writing and a lot more content/real news .
I have a print and digital subscription to the WaPo and a digital subscription to NYT. I get also get a print copy of NYT on Sunday. Yes, I’m old
I used to have a print subscription to my hometown paper (published 6 days /week), but dropped it to read on line. They were bought out recently and now there are firewalls on everything which is annoying.
I’ve had a print subscription to a local paper since college. Back then, it was morning (PI) or evening (Times). Now it’s just the morning Times, 7 d/wk, which includes a digital sub.
Late 2019, they cut out a section to presumably save $. Most, if not all, National coverage is fed from the NYT or WA Post. Local is there, but they’ve cut a lot of staff over the past few years.
I think my local daily paper will be around for a while. Sadly, it took a mass shooting in its newsroom two years ago to thrust it into the national spotlight and amazingly, they still put out a newspaper the next morning. For years it had been affectionately referred to by a variety of negative nicknames but that tragedy brought home just how much people do value local news. Many who had dropped their subscriptions renewed them in a show of support. I was a subscriber for many years, but after years of delivery problems despite repeated complaints, I gave mine up and would read online (free with private browser) occasionally. I did try to subscribe again for paper delivery after the shooting, but the delivery problems persist. Instead I now have a paid for online subscription. I much prefer to read an actual print copy.
Ever since I was a teenager, I read The Washington Post daily (except for the years I lived in NYC and read The NY Times) and had a print subscription until parenthood claimed too much of my time and it would sit unread. I miss it sometimes and do occasionally buy the Sunday paper. I do have a paid online subscription so do read almost every day online.
I spent a few years working for two different local newspapers and one national newsprint/magazine and have a little insight.
The economy isn’t to blame for why newspapers cannot find/keep home delivery drivers. For decades, most adult delivery drivers were employees of the newspapers, with benefits that included insurance and vacation/sick days like any other employee. In the 90s, most newspapers converted all delivery drivers to contract employees, reduced pay, eliminated all benefits, and implemented fine structures to punish drivers who failed to achieve 100% customer satisfaction.
This resulted in a few lawsuits where newspaper delivery drivers/unions sued for unfair treatment. Notably in San Diego and Boston, which were two of the few suits decided in favor of the delivery people.
My lawyer, who worked as a newspaper delivery driver to put himself through law school, said he made good money for it in the early 80s. I know a guy locally who worked as an accountant and taught at a Community College for decades, who also delivered newspapers for decades. He said that adjusted for inflation, pay is down substantially and the miles driven has increased substantially. Today, many drivers earn less than minimum wage after accounting for gas and vehicle maintenance. As contract employees, drivers are expected to work 365 days a year with no sick days, no vacation days – they have to personally pay for fill-in drivers for any days they take off.
That’s the reason why newspapers across the country are having trouble keeping delivery drivers. Some newspapers are treating some features reporters similarly (but not as harshly) and can’t keep them either. I have a friend who was a journalist in the 90s and early 00s, but was forced to find another profession after repeated pay and benefits cuts. It turned out to be a good move for her because she became a college English professor.
I love reading physical papers, but sadly it is a dying industry. Newspapers aren’t cutting pay/benefits because they’re evil corporations. They are doing it because they are failing corporations.
BTW, I once read 3 or 4 different newspapers every day. Now, I read the Sunday NYT, and a local paper a couple of days a week. Everything else, I read online.
We subscribed to the print edition of the local paper for years. The website was terrible. However the size and quality steadily declined and it seemed the price increased every few months. We finally dropped it after another letter about a sizable price increase and I haven’t missed it. Now I read the Wall St Journal and local blogs.
We get the local paper every day, and the regional one Thursday through Sunday. The same person delivers these two papers plus the NYT, WSJ, Boston Globe…and a bunch if others. And she is amazing, paper is here by 5 a.m. every day.
We have online subscriptions to the local and regional as well…comes with the paper one. And NYT and WaPo.
Small northern New England city of less than 50,000. Our one paper still has a daily print edition. Even though I prefer a physical copy, we have an online subscription due to our horror at how quickly the recycling piles up.
Still feels like a lot of local coverage. I serve on a municipal committee that deals with transportation and am also on board of local crisis center, so my radar’s up for those subjects and I find relevant articles almost daily. That’s just what I notice most, there’s also coverage of homelessness, local impact of opioid epidemic, veterans’ affairs, local history; if the quality isn’t world-class, at least I feel a great deal of affection for the brave attempt.
We have an online subscription for the paper where we used to live. While we lived there, we got the print edition everyday up until a few years before we left. The price got ridiculous at the same time that the content diminished, so we switched to Th-Sun print.
We also have an online + Sun. print subscription to WaPo. That’s where we live now.
I do miss having a physical paper to read each morning, but have gotten used to not having it.
We used to have two papers in our city, one skewed a bit more populist/conservative. That one bit the dust a decade ago, the other one – shrunk in size, ambitions and coverage – still hangs on. Regretfully, I stopped my subscription because they’ve made some highly questionable political endorsements - a cynical ploy to appear non-partisan.
Instead, I get the daily & Sunday paper New York Times and Washington Post online.
