Concerned about our daily morning newspaper.

[The Tourist]

I am a life-long resident of Wisconsin, growing up in both Madison and Milwaukee. We have always had multiple newspapers. In Milwaukee, we had the Journal and the Sentinel, which are now merged. In Madison, we had the The Wisconsin State Journal and the Capitol Times. The Cap-Times is now a just a once-per-week insert in that WSJ.

Over the past few months my wife and I have noticed that not only the physical size of the Wisconsin State Journal narrowed, but it has fewer pages and the depth of reporting seems to have dumbed down to a periodical. Even the Sunday 'Parade' section is so small we often lose it in the advertising inserts.

Now, I realize that many people get their news on-line. I also know that many national newspapers are closing. However, we have boots on the ground in the middle-east, a Presidential campaign looming and one of the ugliest local gubernatorial wranglings I've ever seen. Any newspaper should be stuffed with stories not only about local crime, but indepth reporting on national and international news.

My wife and I can both finish the entire paper--and that includes the unfunny comics--within ten minutes. The crossword puzzle might take longer.

I find it cyclic. We claim our kids do not receive the same quality education we got. We criticize the the entire country to be uncaring. Most of us cannot find common countries on a globe. But it seems the overall thinking here is that modern people are dumb so a newspaper should be dumb, too.

We have world events unfolding. I doubt anyone watched the Republican debate, but even my friends know a Kardashian got married. Heck, even I know that. A newspaper might be an antiquated method of dispensing news, but if no one is offered any information it's easier to just spoonfeed them any propoganda at any time.

Is your area any different?

 

[glider]

We have the same issue with the local paper here too. The physical size got smaller and quite often there is only 6 pages in the paper in one section and 2-4 in the other section. The print has gotten so small that it's difficult to read so I took the next step and cancelled the paper.
They keep calling wanting to give me a discounted rate on it but I explained that the paper is only useful for lining the floor of my birds cages and not for reading due to the lack of information and size of the print.

They say thanks and hang up then.

I'm sure that I'm not the only one that has cancelled the paper either.

 

[The Tourist]

I'm sure that I'm not the only one that has cancelled the paper either.

I'm glad you brought that up, my wife and I had the same conversation. Just where is the tipping point between decreased service and getting ripped off?

I like to peruse a daily paper and get caught up on some events as I finish my coffee. It would be nice to leave the house with a few facts.

However, 'cancelation' in now on the table.

 

[glider]

I had the same issue with the XM radio in the car. The price kept going up and we don't spend that much time in the car to warrant the cost. After 2 years I cancelled the XM radio feature and since then they keep contacting me to re join at a reduced rate. They are down to $20 for 5 months from the original $149 or something in that area. Now I have FREE XM radio for a few weeks to see if I like it. :lolrolling

I'm waiting for them to offer me a cash reward to use their service. They just don't seem to get the idea that I'm not interested enough to subscribe with the little time we spend in the car and especially for the fee they charge for music when there are 100's of other stations that will do the job too just with a few commercials.

I guess that the price we pay for living in todays world.

 

[Breeze3at]

Our middle Georgia newspaper is shrinking as well. It is a source of morning chuckles for us, as the reporters seem to all have GED's at best. The grammatical errors are hilarious. Oh wait, that's how we talk in Georgia. :naughty
The internet seems to have killed the classified section, only car dealers now. As long as they have crosswords, my wife will be a subscriber.

 

[Spade5]

It is the same here in Houston. I grew up in an area where one paper covered a population of probably 10,000. Some days our one Houston paper is about the size of what we had when I was a kid.

 

[dbmg]

Pittsburgh used to have 2 different named papers. One for AM one for PM.
They have been consolidated and have lesson to the point if you added all 7 days now they would not equal what Sunday alone used to be.. As to some of The Tourists comments I work in a school district now and do not see to many books but lots of computers. The ironic thing is you should see some of the ways the kids are spelling common words at a applied high school level. Most spell words as the sound and not correctly. Maybe if they had newspapers and books they would at least learn to spell properly.

 

[gasbag]

We stopped buying the newspaper a few years back. We noticed several things we didn't like.
The news coverage was becoming more like tv news, more tabloidal and slanted. The classifieds were useless, the comics were not funny etc.
However, the final straw was when they started becoming political and backing one candidate and ignoring others.
They weren't shy about pushing their own political stance on us, which I felt was a huge violation of what the news media is suppose to be.
Don't even try to get me started on tv news channels.

 

[bwalsh22]

Stopped buying the paper too, long time ago. News I can get online, better and faster.

As for Sirius canceled that too, got XM for 3 months in the new car, let it run out, then they eventually gave it to me for 50% for the year. I took that and will let it run out again next year till it gets better.

 

[glider]

Guys

With the XM radio deal, beware if you are approached for the deal that was offered to me for the $20 that you have to use a credit card and if you forget to contact them at the end of the term that they renew the subscription at FULL price.

Anybody that has a Citi bank credit card has the option of using a virtual card number that is good for only one transaction so they can't nail you for another subscription if you forget to notify them to cancel at the end of the trial period.:s