I recently received this e-mail from a limo service I use for business travel. Another wave goodbye in the long goodbye to print journalism. So long to ink on your fingers, the crinkle and crackle and smell of newsprint paper, the thud of the Sunday edition hitting your front porch, he heft and tactile reality of a NEWSPAPER. Oh, this old school member of the hackpack will miss newspapers, as I still miss the clatter of city room typewriters, the urgent rattle of telexes sending dispatches from afar, editor’s cries of “Boy! Copy down!” Newsrooms today have all the romance of insurance offices. And the rumble of the presses as they ran the first edition! Back in the day, the 25-story Chicago Tribune Tower trembled like a mighty ship getting underway when those big presses cranked up to full speed.
Aside from the fact that we won’t be able to wrap fish in a tablet, we have to consider if, say, the Watergate scandal would have had the impact it did if it appeared on a small touch screen and could be deleted with the tap of a finger. Out of sight, out of mind. I’m sure books are next on the digital geeks’ hit list. So, goodbye to anything resembling permanence in written expression, hello to the transitory, the evanescent: the tweet, the instagram. Here is the e-mail (itself becoming as obsolete a means of communication as smoke signals):
Dear Valued Clients:
Effective January 1 we will no longer have newspapers in our vehicles unless otherwise requested. We have come to this decision for two reasons: first, we are unable to get newspapers until 5:30am and secondly, the majority of our customers view newspapers online and on tablets. Due to changing times, it seems newspapers are becoming obsolete.
If you wish to have newspapers for trips after 5:30am, please advise us and we will post to your profile.
Thank you for your understanding.
Very Truly,
Roy Spezzano
CEO
My little local newspaper, a weekly, is hand-delivered to me each week by a young reporter. He knows I prefer to read the hard copy and he delights in seeing my reactions to the stories (I can be melodramatic). He then always quizes me on how he could have written the piece better. The internet prevails, but the craft of writing endures.
I’ve been surfing online more than 4 hours today, yet I
never found any interesting article like yours. It’s pretty
worth enough for me. In my opinion, if all site owners and bloggers made good content as
you did, the web will be a lot more useful than ever before.
I miss My Weatherman, Grampa Charles ( Prof.Thor of Fort Schuyler and King’s Point The Meteorology Dept) sitting on Sunday Mornings in his comfy chair, long legs crossed, deeply immersed in the newspaper, sipping his black coffee,and finishing up his buttered roll!
What sweet memories you have evoked. Thank you so much, Phillip Caputo!
Don’t slit your wrists over this just yet; the king of capitalism, Warren Buffet, owns 28 newspapers and is still looking. Once the distribution costs are solved and the marketplace accepts pay-per-view on the web, newspapers will be just fine, in some form or fashion, sans rumble, thud, clatter or call, at least during our lifetime, and what else matters?
Course, I understand the feeling; the first onset of depression came when my phone calls began being answered by machines alone; talk about dehumanizing.
But with evolution, as in all things, once adjustment made, there’s hope. One of my top ten favorite people, a 2nd cousin, David Bello of Wickliffe, OH, doesn’t own an answer machine. Call his house, he answers if he’s there; if not, then not but the invite to human discourse continues toward another time without any beeping requirement.
Books and newspapers aren’t quite obsolete yet, but they are getting there. I was happy to learn that “The Longest Road” was selected as the 2014 book for The Big Read at a group of libraries in the Chicago suburbs. The local library system has about 200 copies of it available, of which 134 are actual books. While reading The Longest Road, I vacillated between wishing I was there and being relieved that I wasn’t. It was an extraordinary trip and an excellent book. Then I read the first chapter of Means of Escape. I never imagined I would ever read such a vivid description of the area I also grew up in. My brothers and most of the guys in the area used to hang around the woods and the IHB tracks because there was nothing else to do. My older brother brought home a wounded pigeon he named Johnny, until it laid an egg. The bird followed him everywhere. My younger brother used to go to Hobo Jungle and also hitch rides on the trains. One of my best memories is getting a ride in the cab of a diesel engine. But, I am still hoping to attain “escape velocity,” because this town hasn’t changed much since you left.
Sad state of affairs. I think only older people( count myself as one) still read newspapers. I much prefer to get my news via the written word than thru TV or the internet. But we are a dying breed, and newspapers all over the country are in trouble.
In the same vein, I also prefer my books to be actual books, not e-readers. Love the feel of a book in my hand.