Why We Need Newspapers
Many newspapers face hard times. This is a sad comedown for a medium that once ruled the world. Some people argue that we don’t need newspapers anymore, that we can aggregate all the stories from sources on the internet.
I beg to differ. Newspapers are essential to our society. In increasing order of importance, I listed compelling reasons for this medium to survive, indeed to thrive.
1) Newspapers constitute the only medium that pretends to do investigative journalism. And no, Lewinsky’s cigar doesn’t count.
2) Newspapers are still our best watch dogs for governmental abuses.
3) It’s fun to scan all the many story titles and pick which ones to read.
4) You don’t have to boot up newspaper with Microsoft Vista to read the news.
5) You can easily balance a cup of coffee on your newspaper. Just try doing that on your laptop.
6) If you spill that coffee cup on your newspaper, you’re only out one section of a 75c newspaper. If you spill the coffee into the innards of your laptop, you’ll hear all sorts of hissing as it dies an electronic death. And the cost of the replacement laptop could run about a thousand dollars.
7) You can’t line a bird cage with internet news or a nightly broadcast.
9) Newspapers keep the ink industry healthy. Do we really want to bail out the ink companies?
10) You don’t need to rely on your paper-jamming printer to get a print copy of a really exciting article.
11) A newspaper might even hire me. Hint, hint. San Diego Union-Tribune. For pay, even.
Paul De Lancey, First Lord of Fun
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