As a Blogger, I Live for This....

The other day, I wrote a post about newspapers.  I got a response from "anonymous".  Special sidenote - I have a couple guesses at who this "anonymous" might be.  However, the one thing that confuses me is, although I know many who might say something like this, ALL would sign their name to it.  Hmm. 

Anyhow, anonymous says:

"Print newspapers are a dying breed. Coverage of the G-Rod arrest is a perfect example of how print news has little use anymore.

He was taken into custody on Tuesday around 7 AM. If you learned of this news via the Wednesday morning paper, you are probably living in an area which not only doesn't have internet or TV; you probably don't even have electricity."

All right.  Ding, round two....

There is definitely a point that news happens more than once every 24 hours.  Newspapers probably aren't the best when it comes to 'breaking the news', but this isn't new.  Yes, the radio, tv, internet, etc. are probably all better at this.

However, a newspaper's sole purpose isn't 'breaking the news'.  There is something tangible, real and lasting about a newspaper.  At one time there was a certain buzz and excitement after a big event about 'seeing the headlines tomorrow' (yes, anonymous, headlines of stories about events that people were, indeed, already aware of).   Whether or not that buzz still exists is another argument entirely, however, I do know this - the day after Obama's election, there was a huge rush of people in line to get a copy of the morning after's paper (and I HIGHLY HIGHLY doubt it was to find out who won the election).  I know a lot of people were interested in preserving their copies and keeping them for years to come.  I question if these same people were printing up blog headlines and putting them in a safe place.  

Anyhow, one can most definitely question the future of newspapers in today's world, however, as I see it, there is undeniably something newspapers bring to the table that other forms of news media do not.