Average Jane Reads the Paper (Just Once)

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Yesterday, one of my other blogs was featured in the newspaper along other local blogs.

I haven’t subscribed to the paper for many years, nor do I read it online, but I found the link to the article in the morning and purchased a dead-tree copy on my way to work.

It was a nice gesture for the paper to tip its hat to the local blogging community, and I did a blog post welcoming anyone who might be stopping by after reading the article.

Total number of new commenters: 1
Apparent increase in traffic: Non-discernible
Only person who called after seeing the article: My 75-year-old dad, who will never, I repeat never, see the actual blog online due to his lack of computer skills.

I hesitate to draw sweeping conclusions from this one experience, but it certainly seems to confirm that the intersection of old media and new media is practically nil. It also seems to suggest that newspapers’ efforts to bring their content online aren’t having the desired effect either.

I’m curious about your media consumption habits. Where do you get your news? (Mine comes almost exclusively from Google News these days.) Do you read a daily newspaper? If so, is it paper or online? Have you ever typed in a URL you found in a newspaper or magazine?

I’ll be interested to see just how many of us have left old media behind for good.

Comments

12 responses to “Average Jane Reads the Paper (Just Once)”

March 23, 2007

June

I read most of my news online but I still subscribe to the local daily paper. Probably the biggest change for me is that I no longer subscribe to a ton of magazines. You can find all the gossip, beauty secrets, relationship/sex advice, etc. you could ever need online!

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March 23, 2007

Blondie

I read yahoo news everyday because I have a yahoo email address. Sometimes, if something really AMAZING is happening (like Britney going to rehab again), I check cnn.com. And I subscribe to Time Magazine, but I’m letting it run out b/c I’m sick of reading the cover stories about Iraq. I get a lot of my gossip from perezhilton.com. I do look up links I see in magazines, but not the newspaper because I haven’t read a newspaper since my father read me the comics each Sunday back in 1985. 🙂

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March 23, 2007

floribunda

I get most of my news by dozing through an hour of NPR on my clock radio every morning. Then I skim the local paper most days and read the comics and local columnists, and look at headlines on Yahoo or SF Gate occasionally. I have actually gotten to a couple of blogs by reading about them in the paper — may have found yours last year through an article about BlogHer! Can’t remember…

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March 23, 2007

dawn

i get almost all my news from npr, supplemented by internet news sites and the sunday new york times (dead-tree version). i surf interesting sites that i see online, but i am way too lazy to write anything down from a newspaper or magazine and actually type it into the computer. that’s just asking too much.

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March 23, 2007

Devorah

I still read the paper version of the NY Times most days. We get it delivered. And I have absolutely typed in urls from the dead-tree media.

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March 24, 2007

me

I get most everything online too. I still read Newsweek every week to catch what I missed, and there’s the occasional tv news broadcast that catches the eye. I also catch the headlines of local papers occasionally, but very rarely actually read articles.
I did see your feature in the paper and meant to call and congratulate. I just saw it, though, because I took the Little Man to McDonald’s playplace and I saw a copy that someone had abandoned on a table. Old media leftovers!

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March 24, 2007

ozma

NY Times. I have to read the NY Times every day. I don’t believe it is the best news source or the true news source (if such a thing exists) but it’s a habit I have and I simply can’t seem to break it.
Now I get the headlines online and read it online. I have Times Select. I rarely read the print copy.
The news junkie thing is a real thing and the internet was like having my pusher as a downstairs neighbor. Not healthy. I used to read every major online thing–BBC, CNBC, Time, The Nation, CNN, etc. and dozens of political blogs–daily Kos, bla bla and so on and so on and then I realized that was driving me nuts (i.e., knowing what was actually happening in detail was driving me nuts). But I could never break the Times habit.
Now there are a ton of things I don’t know about. The Times does not keep one well informed. I also read The New Yorker and The Economist but there are many, many stories I never hear about until they heat up substantially.

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March 25, 2007

Girl con Queso

That’s great about getting in the paper. Yay you!
But no, I don’t ever read the paper. I’ve completely given it up for online info.

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March 26, 2007

The Misanthrope

I have the LATimes and the Wall Street Journal delivered during the week and the NYTimes joins the other two on Saturday and Sunday. The problem is that I just don’t have time to read the paper in the morning when I leave the house by 6:30 a.m. If I lunch by myself, which is rare, then I can read both daily delivered newspapers. I read the NYTimes daily during little breaks throughout the day, such as during a boring conference call. I too wake up to NPR and I listen to it during the drive in and in the office. Also, I listen to NPR in the afternoon and on the way home. I am a news junkie and I would be a pusher if it paid.

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March 28, 2007

By Jane

Nope, I’d say that the intersection of old media and new media is very much alive–at least in my corner of the room. I get the local paper daily and read it with my morning coffee. Then I go on-line where the LA Times, Yahoo news, Comcast headlines are waiting for me. My Treo gets the Washington Post and the NY Times. I listen to NPR when I’m in the car and watch local and network news in the evening. I can’t imagine being without a constant source of news both print and on-line.

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March 28, 2007

Karl

I still get a mix of news, I guess. I watch CNN in the morning, read the local paper (or skim it, really), and also read news online. Occasionally, I’ll type in a URL I see in the paper, too.

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March 30, 2007

Debprah

I still read a (dean tree variety)newspaper, a few in fact, although, not daily. I subscribe to 1 magazine, but I buy a few (different one)a month. I also read news on-line, several outlets.
I have checked out urls that I’ve seen printed in newspapers or magazines.

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