Newspapers sometimes appear to be a dying species in America. The Internet has
consumed ad revenue, much of which was traditionally the domain of newspapers,
but not anymore. In addition, Americans don’t consume newspapers like they used
to. It seems many have abandoned reading altogether. That may be true for some,
but most are consuming their news in paragraphs instead of pages or whole
newspapers. Mobile devices are now the source of most news, with their
convenience and shortened web-version of articles. In fact, the longer version
just doesn’t exist anymore. Now, the news needs to be reported at such a quick
rate in order to be relevant that long-form journalism is hard to find. In a
lot of cases, one has to wait for the Sunday newspaper to read an article that
actually is thorough enough to be classified as reporting.
Often it just seems like newspapers are not going to last. I
don’t see that many people reading them anymore. The rack of papers at
Starbucks is full in the late afternoon. And I can get The New York Times for free every weekday on DU’s campus and I feel
like I am one of the few students in my program who actually takes advantage of
this.
That is why it is so refreshing to arrive in London and see
people voraciously consuming the news in print. There are several major
newspapers in London. I can think of The
Guardian, The Times, The Financial Times, The Telegraph, The Evening Standard, The Sun,
and the free Metro just off the top
of my head right now. I should add that the Standard
is free as well.
The few times we were on the tube during rush hour,
especially in the morning, everyone was reading something. It is just so great
to see. Even if they were reading The Sun
or a tabloid, I was happy for them, proud that there is a metropolis in which
print is surviving. Even in the UK, despite their huge scandals in the last
year concerning phone and email hacking, the paper industry is still
significant enough to have several papers competing against each other,
something you could only remotely say about these US cities: NYC, Chicago,
D.C., and Los Angeles.
I brought home a copy of The
Guardian (my favorite paper in the UK) and The Times. I will finish reading them cover to cover and then I
probably won’t throw them away. I feel they are my best souvenirs from across
the pond, where, as if under a wonderful spell, people still pay attention to
original reporting. In stark contrast, the Huffington Post is popular in
America.
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