Subj : Paper route
To   : DARYL STOUT
From : JOE MACKEY
Date : Thu Sep 05 2019 08:17:52

  Daryl wrote --

>   So much has changed in the newspaper and periodical publishing
> business. The cost of postage and printing (including newsprint) has
> skyrocketed...while at the same time, the number of subscribers and ads
> has plunged.

  At one time we had two papers here, a morning (Herald Dispatch, Democrat)
and afternoon (Advertiser, Republican).  While they were owned by the same
local company they were competitive.
  In the early '70s the Advertiser, with fewer and fewer sales, was merged
with the Herald Dispatch and only one daily, mornings.
  With no competition quality soon dropped.
  In addition local ownership was sold to national chains and has changed
hands many times.
  A few years they experimented with a free online edition with only the
headlines and maybe the first paragraph.  
  Over time that evolved to a online edition of the whole paper and now
cost about $100 a year.  No more five or six free stories before one had to
subscribe.  Now one has to pay to read it, other than one or two stories. (I
used to read it blind or delete th
  One can read it with headlines or as a e-copy of the print paper in
layout.
  They recently dropped the print Monday paper, which was always worthless.
  I saw the Tuesday edition that morning and for 75 cents a copy there was
nothing in it.  Took about two or three minutes to read the local news.
  But there are a lot of other places to get ones news both local and
otherwise.  
  Joe
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