local newspapers...

[jamespowers]

Plus, without the daily paper, I've got nothing to use for briquette starter.

That's what they invented the glow rings for.
The local newspapers here are perfectly good for wrapping fish. Having them cover local meetings such as the city council is interesting to say the least. I often wonder if I was actually attending the same meeting.

 

[James71]

The Blue Mountains Gazette is alive and well. It still has more pages of cranky old people writing letters than any other paper.

I love it.

 

[Mav]

The local newspapers here are perfectly good for wrapping fish.

Now you're just insulting fish.

 

[jamespowers]

Now you're just insulting fish.

lol lol lol lol lol
Poor fish having to look at that boring dreck---even if they are dead.

 

[Paisley]

I might read the Denver Post if I could get past the fact that they don't know how to use apostrophes.

 

[Tango Yankee]

I might read the Denver Post if I could get past the fact that they don't know how to use apostrophes.

:eusa_clap lol :eusa_clap lol :eusa_clap

I'm not familiar with the Denver Post but I sure appreciate the sentiment! My brother once had a web site that on which he posted photographs I'd taken on the island of Peleliu. Imagine my horror when I looked at it and saw the title page referred to Peleliu "Photo's"!

Bob the Angry Flower doesn't like misuse of the apostrophe, either. You may like his Quick Guide!

Cheers,
Tom

 

[Undertow]

Started in 1915 as a merged paper (with half a dozen predecessors dated back to 1843) the Des Moines Register and the similarly merged Des Moines Tribune were once valid sources of news and information. At one time, both were nationally popular publications selling about 500k issues during the 60's. The Tribune was an evening edition which ended publication in '82.

The Des Moines Register and Tribune started such things as peach-colored paper for the Sports section (ended in '99), RAGBRI (Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa - founded 1972), the front page editorial cartoon started in 1902 (carried up until 2008 when they fired the veteran cartoonist; he's doing cartoons for another of our local papers Cityview now), as well as the first state-sponsored opinion poll. The paper also had Iowa branches all over the country, including DC, in order to provide accurate and frequent news stories.

In 1985, with only the New York Times having earned more Pulitzers for reporting (DMR having won 13), The Des Moines Register was sold to Gannett Company. From that point forward, the paper has lost vast readership, has scaled back reporting to nearly nothing and has focused on local stories and tabloid articles.

I have friends that work for the Des Moines Register, and I have also worked as a reporter there in my time. I feel sick to see our paper turn from an amazing, interesting publication which used to be nearly the size of a phonebook everyday, into nothing more than a 20 page rag filled with advertisements and popularity contests. Gannett, owner of such boring outlets as USA Today, turned our paper into nothing more than a ghost of what it was. No one reads it anymore, it's invalidated itself numerous times, it's rank with errors and omissions and frankly, it's boring as peeled paint.

Now that it takes AP tickers and reports them in breif, paraphrased blurbs on page 2 (yes, that's the entirety of National Coverage), I've stopped reading it altogether and only occassionally browse the website for local stories. It's really depressing, honestly.

 

[grundie]

In my home city of Derry in Northern Ireland the big local newspaper, the Derry Journal, has never been stronger. Recently it added extra editions and new local rivals have spung up to muscle in on the action.

Now I will say the Derry Journal is very well written. 100+ pages of all local content and nothing from any newswire service. It has a very strong local focus and goes to great lengths to get involved with the local population.

On the other hand Dublin's only remaining citywide daily newspaper, the Herald, is a joke. It's full of sensationaist nonsense and the writers are obsessed with reporting on crime, crime and nothing else but crime. I can't see it lasting.

The moral (I think) is that if the paper stays true to it's roots and gets involved with local issues and events then iit will thrve otherwise it will die.

 

[Big Man]

... The moral (I think) is that if the paper stays true to it's roots and gets involved with local issues and events then it will thrve otherwise it will die.

Well said.

 

[Harp]

There is no longer any meaningful, serious local journalism being done here.
I still read the Boston Globe every day and will for as long as it exists, because I simply despise the way news is presented online -- I weep over the corpse of journalism.

The Chicago Tribune bit the dust some time ago, R.I.P.; however, I force myself to skim
through it now and then, but mainly stick to the sports page.
I occasionally scan The New York Times book and theatre sections
online at the office, or the Times editorials for a laugh.

 

[jamespowers]

The moral (I think) is that if the paper stays true to it's roots and gets involved with local issues and events then iit will thrve otherwise it will die.

If it doesn't then it is at least good to wrap fish and line birdcages.

 

[Mav]

If it doesn't then it is at least good to wrap fish and line birdcages.

Lining birdcages with them actually improves them.

 

[jamespowers]

Lining birdcages with them actually improves them.

Why? There is already the same thing in them that is then on them?

 

[Adcurium]

I don't get the newspaper. Well, I sometimes buy our town's weekly paper but I hardly ever buy the Providence Journal. It was more of a newspaper back in 1995 when I first moved here. Now, it is just a shell of what it once was. I hit the local ProJo site online, as well as NYT, CNN and NPR. I just don't have time to read hard copy. But maybe I'll subscribe to at least the Sunday paper or buy the home delivery of our local weekly, rather than just picking it up at the coffee shop. I now feel guilty for not getting it delivered. What if I'm the cause of our newspaper's demise!