Stop the presses...

[REWahoo]

...at least when it comes to printing my copy of the daily newspaper.

As far back as I can remember there has been a daily newspaper in the REW household. As subscription prices increased, we did cut back to the Friday-Sunday option a couple of years ago, but we still got the local paper.

A month ago the paper announced they were going to begin giving us weekend subscribers a bonus issue and include a Thursday delivery at no additional charge. When the quarterly renewal came last week I discovered the rates were going up more than 15% - to $195 a year. That did it for us - no more daily newspaper.

Guess I'll have to throw a plastic cover over my laptop so I can read the news online while eating my morning Cheerios...

 

[samclem]

I don't feel like a get great value from our local paper, but I still subscribe. The ads are good on Sunday, but the real benefit is having some dedicated muck-rakers to watch the city council, zoning board, local govt, and all the other stuff I can't do personally. I pretty much just subscribe to help pay for folks to shine light on the local dealings. The Dayton Daily News does only a substandard job of this, but it's better than nothing.

 

[Rustic23]

We quit a couple of years ago, however, we just started it again. Our border collie use to run out and get the paper. When we quit, we had to lay him off. His unemployment checks stopped coming so I started the paper again to give him something to do.

Wahoo, if you live near a college you might call around and see if you can get a 'School Rate'. I know some people in Huntsville, Tx, that are getting the Houston Chron. for $80 a year! At least that is what they tell me.

 

[Midpack]

We quit a couple of years ago, however, we just started it again. Our border collie use to run out and get the paper. When we quit, we had to lay him off. His unemployment checks stopped coming so I started the paper again to give him something to do.

We quit newspapers years ago too, LBYM and to save a tree or two. YMMV

My 88-year old parents will never stop 'taking the paper.' And that's fine too.

 

[haha]

It is hard for me to sit and read a paper or anything else at home.(Other than my computer screen that is!) I sometimes buy a Seattle Times when I am having lunch in the executive dining room at Mickey-D's.

Ever since college reading the paper without being out depresses me. And I cannot tackle the Sunday paper; just not going to happen at home or away. When I lived in Berkeley I would sit and read the Chronicle in a coffee shop. I loved McCabe, but the rest of the experience depressed me.

Ha

 

[CuppaJoe]

I re-started a Kindle subscription at 5.99/mo. after months of misquotting Bogie, "I'm uninformed." It has no ads, few obits (which wasted a lot of my time) and no crosswords. I get the crosswords from either a free paper or a page-a-day calendar. The Kindle deal can be stopped and re-started instantly and they give refunds right away.

 

[Rustic23]

I thought of an e subscription, but the dog is really h3ll on the reader! Besides I have to put it on the curb in the morning so he can go get it, and I never had paper to start the BBQ grill.

 

[73ss454]

Heck, I didn't even know they still made a newspaper. I thought they were something you went to a museum to see.

 

[Rustward]

We used to get the weekender, Fri, Sat, Sun. When the circulation started going down, a Thursday edition was added to the weekender, and recently Wednesday was added -- and they don't call it weekender any more. They are doing everything they can to keep the numbers up. You can get Sunday editions in the grocery stores two for the price of one. They are all struggling.

 

[Midpack]

Heck, I didn't even know they still made a newspaper. I thought they were something you went to a museum to see.

They will disappear in time, just a question of when. Our local small town (pop 29K) paper is so thin now, it's sad. There's nothing to it Mon thru Friday at least. If it wasn't for the plastic sleeve, it would probably blow off the driveway and down the street...

 

[Rustward]

Our border collie use to run out and get the paper.

Reminds me of one Sunday when a neighbor rang the doorbell. He had two newspapers in his hand and wanted to know if I was missing a paper because his dog had brought his and two others to his door.

 

[Midpack]

Dogs rule!

 

[Rustic23]

If the neighbors have not picked up their paper before we go for a morning walk, Bandit, will retrieve it! He just does not understand why that is a bad thing.

Actually, I get double credit for starting the paper, DW likes to do the Sudoku in the morning.

 

[W2R]

...at least when it comes to printing my copy of the daily newspaper.

As far back as I can remember there has been a daily newspaper in the REW household. As subscription prices increased, we did cut back to the Friday-Sunday option a couple of years ago, but we still got the local paper.

A month ago the paper announced they were going to begin giving us weekend subscribers a bonus issue and include a Thursday delivery at no additional charge. When the quarterly renewal came last week I discovered the rates were going up more than 15% - to $195 a year. That did it for us - no more daily newspaper.

Guess I'll have to throw a plastic cover over my laptop so I can read the news online while eating my morning Cheerios...

Aw!!! I'm so sorry to hear it.

I have such fond memories of reading the Sunday paper when I was a little girl. Growing up, and making my way as a young woman, I always wanted to get the paper but felt I couldn't afford it. Then I got to the point where i could afford it, but with career and family felt I didn't have time to read it. Now, finally I have the time to read the paper AND I can afford it. But somehow the news media have evolved, or maybe I have. I get my news elsewhere. If your laptop gets too splattered (like mine), and if you have a good sense of humor, you can always listen to the TV news.

 

[travelover]

Our paper went from 7 day home delivery to Thurs, Friday and Sunday only. It is augmented with a daily e-edition on line, included in the subscription price. They also offer a second version on-line, for free.

Ironically, the free edition is updated constantly plus has all the content of the pay for edition. I only continue to pay as the paper has done some great corruption investigative reporting and I feel like I should support them to continue their work. If not for them, the crooks would still be in office.

Initially I really missed the paper version on the days it is on-line only, but now I've adjusted.

 

[dessert]

We still susbscribe to a 7 day newspaper. Somehow it just always was enjoyable to read the paper over a morning cup of coffee. We are considering not renewing next year because we might not be home enough and we will have to keep stopping it while we are away. We'll just see when the renewal time comes I guess.

 

[Nords]

Guess I'll have to throw a plastic cover over my laptop so I can read the news online while eating my morning Cheerios...

Just make sure you swallow before reading the "Funny Joke Thursday" posts.

We haven't taken a paper in several years. We still get a weekly ad flyer, and that supplies us with just enough shredded newsprint to keep our vermiposting worms covered.

We let Business Week magazine lapse a few years before they [-]went under[/-] surrendered to Bloomberg. We just stopped our subscription to Scientific American. If I could, I'd change the address on my lifetime U.S. Naval Institute PROCEEDINGS magazine subscription to my daughter. And now that Class of '82 is hitting their 50s, our alumni magazine gets grimmer every month.

But we're keeping our Family Handyman subscription for its full-color centerfolds of the latest tools. I swear I only get it to read the articles...

 

[thefed]

I don't feel like a get great value from our local paper, but I still subscribe. The ads are good on Sunday, but the real benefit is having some dedicated muck-rakers to watch the city council, zoning board, local govt, and all the other stuff I can't do personally. I pretty much just subscribe to help pay for folks to shine light on the local dealings. The Dayton Daily News does only a substandard job of this, but it's better than nothing.

very off topic- but i was sitting in a meeting with my biz partner and someone brought him some paperwork on a building that is supposedly right on the corner of downtown-downtown dayton...built in the 90's, 11 stories i think with a granite exterior...he was involved in the construction and it cost them around 55mil to build...up for sale right now at 7.9mil. is the city doing that bad...or is this an isolated incident

 

[samclem]

very off topic- but i was sitting in a meeting with my biz partner and someone brought him some paperwork on a building that is supposedly right on the corner of downtown-downtown dayton...built in the 90's, 11 stories i think with a granite exterior...he was involved in the construction and it cost them around 55mil to build...up for sale right now at 7.9mil. is the city doing that bad...or is this an isolated incident

Downtown Dayton has some significant issues, but I'd be surprised if a typical commercial building there had lost 80% of its value in 20 years. Maybe he put more money into it than it was worth?

The surrounding 'burbs are doing fine and are largely disconnected commercially and culturally from the city center. Dayton proper might bounce back someday, but it has been dysfunctional for decades (terrible schools, badly run government, anti-business policies, etc) . NCR, a legend in Dayton history that did a lot to build the town, moved its HQ to Atlanta last year. It was a real shock, from all accounts neither the company nor the city did much to prevent it or handled the situation very well.

Beautiful old homes in Dayton, many now condemned. I'd like to learn someday what drove the place down.

 

[WhoDaresWins]

I cut out the daily paper a few years ago. Several times in a row, when I was on vacation and had notified them well in advance to put the papers on hold, they kept delivering them. So they would pile up in my driveway, announcing to the world that the occupant was not at home, until one of my neighbors started picking them up. My neighbors on either side both know I am away over Christmas and New Years, but I did not see why I needed to alert them and give them a newspaper-picking-up job if I went to the beach for 3 or 4 days or out to my aunt's for a long week-end.
I skim the local paper online. I also skim the NYT online and subscribe to the WSJ, again online.

 

[Badger]

Years ago it made a great mulch for the garden along with some grass clippings. Then the price went way up while the paper became an even worse rag for reading. About the same time I changed to a raised bed garden and hired to boy next door mow my yard. The newspaper has no value for me anymore and I refuse to pay for a paper that is 75% advertising.

Cheers!

 

[Walt34]

... but the real benefit is having some dedicated muck-rakers to watch the city council, zoning board, local govt, and all the other stuff I can't do personally. I pretty much just subscribe to help pay for folks to shine light on the local dealings.

Some of the same reasons here, and in addition I just like the local news, which has more of an effect on daily life than anything happening in Washington or Afghanistan. They do try very hard to do more than just muck-raking and we've gone to some interesting activities/events that we wouldn't have learned about from another source.

Before we moved to WV, I'd never been to a tractor pull....

 

[Dawg52]

My mother still takes the local paper. I usually drop by and pick it up for her while walking the dog in the mornings. The first thing she turns to is the obituaries. Shes 93 and has just about outlived all her friends, so not many names she recognizes anymore unless it an old friend of mind.

For me, it takes less than 5 minutes to shuffle though our paper. I see no need to subscribe to it. I can read the online version free which is good enough. As most of the older crowd dies off, so will the local papers.

 

[audreyh1]

We stopped the paper in 2000 shortly after we retired.

First, we noticed the entire paper was available on-line anyway. We'd already started to browse it that way.

Second, they were terrible about stopping and starting paper delivery while we were traveling, and we didn't like disclosing when we would be gone anyway.

Once we permanently stopped it - we were so glad we did! No more accumulated paper waste. Spent a lot less time too, because somehow easier to skim on on-line version.

Have never wanted a paper since. One of our neighbors seemed really surprised when we picked up their papers during a short trip and returned them all unread. No interest.

Oh - going fulltime we got rid of all print magazine subscriptions too. That was wonderful. That's another thing I don't expect to start ever again, especially since all that stuff is available on-line anyway.

Audrey

 

[W2R]

We stopped the paper in 2000 shortly after we retired.

First, we noticed the entire paper was available on-line anyway. We'd already started to browse it that way.

Second, they were terrible about stopping and starting paper delivery while we were traveling, and we didn't like disclosing when we would be gone anyway.

Here, you get the paper delivered on Thursdays and Sundays even if you don't subscribe. The version you get is mostly ads but it looks just like the paper. So, if you are ever away from home, whether you subscribe or not, you are advertising your absence unless you can get a neighbor to pick up your paper.

That neighbor also needs to remove the two foot long, very bright ads hung on your door knob several times per week, not to mention the oversized ads that don't fit in your mailbox and are easily visible hanging out at least a foot.

Personally, I think those behind all of the above should be prosecuted for littering but I seriously doubt that will happen in my lifetime.

And you kids, get off my lawn!!