The Importance of Print News
On Sunday Evening, I sat down and did something I never do: read the newspaper. Not the online version either, the real, printed, hard-copy Friday edition of The New York Times.
I admit, at first glance it was intimidating. The paper was thick, and the front page glared at me as if it was daring me to read the whole thing cover to cover. I took its dare, sat down and read the Times from front to back, the whole time trying to evaluate the ever-present question, “What will we lose when we lose the physical newspaper?”
Immediately, a few things came to mind. One thing was time. Maybe we won’t actually lose time, but we will lose something even more precious, the ability to focus. I’ll admit reading the full newspaper took more time than I would have liked it too and I did get a little antsy at some points, but in the end it was a useful way to spend my time. It was a nice built-in relaxor to my busy day. When we read the news online, or listen to it, we are often multi-tasking. Although some people may argue that they absorb just as much information this way, I believe that taking a decent amount of time out of your day to read the morning paper can be more beneficial than grab and go news. Plus, reading the actual paper is giving can important skills such as patience and overall focus.
Another thing I noticed about the physical newspaper was that on the inside cover there was a small section solely dedicated for the purpose of fixing corrections in past issues. Whereas online if an author makes a mistake grammatically or factually they can simply edit it, in print the author has no choice but to wait until the next issue comes out to correct their mistake. I think this small section in physical newspapers can teach valuable lessons. For one, it can teach people to be more careful. Although on the internet mistakes can be deleted in the blink of an eye, in the real world most mistakes are permanent. The correction section of the paper highlights that and in turn I think could persuade writers for papers to spend more time fact and spell checking their work than writers for online papers do. In the same sense, the corrections section of the paper also causes people to have no choice but to own up to their mistakes, you can never truly hide, yet another important lesson.
Something else that will be gone when papers disappear is variety and well-rounded readers. As an example, I myself mainly only read big headlines and sports news when I am reading my news online. However, when I read the whole newspaper I was exposed to a variety of topics that I found very interesting, yet I would not have read them normally. In this way, the physical paper exposes readers to an immense variety of topics that they may not have otherwise found themselves. Papers as large as The New York Times try to open their readers up to something they normally wouldn’t read about everyday, whereas online, news companies are mainly only trying to appeal their readers with a certain hook or topic, maybe not their overall platform.
All and all, something that will be gone with physical newspapers, is the overall officality of sitting down and reading the morning paper. I am not going to lie, when I read the paper I felt grown up. Important. But when I look at my phone, (even if it is to read the news) I feel like a kid. Unimportant. And although, importance isn’t a legitimate reason to miss newspapers, I can honestly say that in 10 years from now I will certainly miss the feeling of simply holding a newspaper in my hands. As both an avid writer and reader I feel deeply saddened that my kids will probably never get to hold a real newspaper in their lifetime.
