Why I Love Reading The Dead Tree Newspaper
I don’t have to turn anything on.
I never have to worry about the connection being down.
If I drop it, I’ve not blown hundreds of dollars.
If my cat chews on it, it won’t: a. electrocute him; b. mean I’m going to have a big repair bill.
I can browse, tear out, cut out, fold, mark up, to my heart’s content…and I can snail mail the crosswords to my Mom (who doesn’t have a computer or internet connectivity), which is a nice surprise for her.
Nobody forces me to read an ad before I can get to the content.
I can read ads if they appear interesting, as I wish…or not.
Nobody is YELLING at me as I try to read the article.
Nobody is TELLING me what to think. (Or if they’re trying, I can simply flip the page, maybe come back later when I’m more in the mood to consider another point of view.)
It’s also a little treat every morning…out there in my driveway waiting for me and my coffee zen time.
There are some marketing points in all this re quality, targeting, and customer emotion – but I’m sure you’re smart enough to figure them out, without me telling or yelling.
Now, I’ve off to write a nice Holiday tip check to my NYT carrier – who gets up at some ungodly hour…slogs through snow (this a.m.) sleet, and rain to bring me my treat every morning.
(And, yes, I pay for the privilege and am happy to do it…and would also be fine with paying for quality journalism on the Web.)
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And you never know when you need to paint a chair and keep the paint off the floor.
Mary, God luv ya. I myself am a newspaper fan who is frustrated by, but helpless to stop, the steady erosion of one of the last bastions of intelligent discourse. And as you point out, the ad/content relationship is at just the right level – there if I care, or if it’s clever enough to capture my attention, but not invasive or annoying. I’m going to USE your take on that in some ad class down the line.
I second EVERYTHING you mentioned, and I’ll add one:
If it’s IN the newspaper, SOMEONE other than the author had to decide it was worthy. There IS a crossbar, however high or low it is. Costs money to print things.
On line, the distinctions blur. Anyone who CAN, DOES publish – at virtually NO cost of entry. And our increasingly undiscriminating citizenry mistakes “words” for “journalism.”
And Bruce – don’t sweat the paint. Just scan in a picture of the chair, Photoshop it to whatever color you like, print it out, and TAPE it to the chair. For future generations, that will probably do the trick – after all, it came from a computer! MUST be good!
Okay, enough of the old crank rave. I’ll step back into my hip contemporary persona now.
Mike, good point re someone other than the author.
Bruce – I just decide the chair is supposed to look like that (shabby chic) and therefore, no need for paint.