I came across this rather forlorn site in front of a downtown office building a few months ago. Yes, the concrete stones are indeed as cold as they look, and the newspapers had indeed been piling up for three days straight.
I still remember delivering the paper when I was a kid, long before the commercial Internet rewrote the rules of how news was gathered, sold, distributed and consumed. I still believe there's room in some niche-like manner for paper-based media, even if it's only a small slice of a much larger electronic distribution strategy.
But on this day, in this place, it was hard to ignore the elastic-bound papers, forgotten by someone who had probably subscribed months earlier and then never bothered to pick them up.
It made me a little sad for what we've lost. Because as convenient as it may be to read the paper on a tablet, we lose a visceral sense of connectedness in the process. It may be a more efficient means of delivery, but it's nowhere near as rich. And to whoever paid for these papers and never bothered reading them, wherever you are you're missing out on a time-honoured experience.
Your turn: Paper or electronic? Why?
I still have the paper delivered!.. and by default, they send it to me via web... My whole life, we have had the paper delivered.. nowadays, its shrunk in size, gone up in price.. and I still buy books.. I haven't surrendered to a Kindle.. tho I know I should... there's something about picking up that paper/book.. love the feel of it.. and I admit, I'm a creature of habit.
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