Do you read the Newspaper?

Do you read the newspaper? I don’t who has the time any more. Every few months I get a phone call from the local big city newspaper asking if I want a subscription. No matter how great a deal it is sending me the newspaper is an environmental catastrophe. Sending me the newspaper only creates a fire hazard. Piles and piles of it sit in my driveway and next to my chair. I know because I once signed up for a free subscription to the Wall Street Journal and only remember reading it twice. It wasn’t the Journal’s fault and I don’t think the USA today would change anything either. I just don’t read it and most likely never will. My news and information is captured via the internet (websites, blogs, search engines, ect), TV, and radio (only when I am in the car).

Now magazines I read. Maybe it’s because of the pictures, the featured stories, or maybe it is the format. Magazines are easier to handle. The print is larger and usually the quality of the paper used is much better. I like tactile feel of high quality magazines. Plus the pictures are better on better quality paper.

Look at the pictures in the newspaper and you’ll think these images suck. Well you can not blame the photographer really it is the physical papers fault. You can only make the photo look as good as the paper it’s printed on.

Actually when I look at the newspaper I instantly think of old uninteresting news. Unless a newspaper has an exclusive on a big story it most likely is old news already broadcasted to millions of people on the internet and cable.

Ok enough of my ranting. In my honest opinion the newspaper business could be improved. I might read the paper if a few things were changed.

• First – Change the form factor. The newspaper is too hard to hold. There is nothing I hate more than a person reading the newspaper on the bus or subway with their arms wide open taking up a ton of space. Smaller is better.

• Second – Don’t try to cram everything into the paper. If this means getting rid of redundant information, cutting less important stories, and moving more things to the internet then do it.

• Third – Consider using a different type of paper. White paper maybe even lightly coated to make the images and stories pop of the page.

• Fourth – This is a big one, consider personalized newspapers. Build a newspaper packed with news I am interested in. Pull stories about the country and other regions of the world about subjects I like. Not like the AP stories that everyone gets. I like to read a story written by a journalist who lives in the region. Maybe I could ask for stories with opposite opinions in my newspaper. I would love the ability to pull stories from my old neighborhood. Maybe I don’t care about the sports section unless it is the Super Bowel or Final Four.

  I see all the papers in the world linked together feeding information into one large database and then when it is time to print each newspaper is customized for each person. Build a paper just for me.

• Fifth – This is related to number four. Customize the ads for me. I think this helps the company buying the ad and the reader who really doesn’t care about 90% of the ads published today.
  

If the newspapers of the world today would do this for me I might consider buying one again.