Newspapers

At a time when newspapers are facing such tough times, I was encouraged by my trip to Market Street in Southern Village today in order to replace a soggy copy of the Herald-Sun on my driveway. By the time I left the vending machines, I had picked up the News & Observer for 50 cents and the Herald-Sun replacement for 50 cents PLUS the Daily Tar Heel for free, the Independent for free, and the Carrboro Citizen for free.

When I got back home, I read them all 0r at least what we generally call "reading" when it comes to skimming around newspaper pages and stories. Do I feel like I got a dollar's worth out of all that? You bet!!! In fact, it probably was worth 2.50 for the lot to me, but if they had been priced that high, I probably would not have bought them all, and so I would not know what I missed.

There is something so valuable about the way in which newspaper pages are laid out and so far we have not come close to replicating that serendipiditious experience on a computer or other screen.

In any case, we are lucky to have all these "voices" and so many chances each and week to be informed about so many things, both in terms of news and in terms of commerce.

A large part of newspapers' challenge today is that they do a really poor job of telling the story of the personal value derived from each issue by readers.

Just think for a moment.... When was the last time you heard or read a newspaper telling you about the different yesterday's paper made in someone's life - from the simple choics of food on sale to some understanding of a global issue and all points inbetween?