Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Cancelling the paper


Yesterday I cancelled my subscription to the Seattle Times, which has been my hometown newspaper of choice since I was a kid. Whenever I've lived in Seattle or nearby, I've read the Times. It used to anchor my evenings, then a few years ago the Times shifted to being a morning paper, and I wrapped it into my morning rituals (up, wash, dress, prayer, breakfast and the paper) with special attention to world news, the editorial cartoon, Mariners scores in baseball season, and the comics page. In many ways, it's been part of my sense of continuity, security.

But the newspaper world has been shrinking and the Times with it. The editorial cartoon seems to be appearing only on Sundays, and Doonesbury has been banished to the funny pages. The Mariners, in this year of misery, have not been fun to follow. The classified ads, once hefty, are now reduced to a few pages. Most of the news comes from the Washington Post or New York Times, and I can easily read that on-line. Announcements of staff layoffs are frequent. My sense of continuity and security gets battered! I can only imagine how difficult and frustrating it is to be a print journalist or editor these days, how tattered their security is.

I cancelled my subscription not because of all these changes - I would choose to be a loyal reader to the end - but because the Seattle Times doesn't deliver to El Salvador. I wish all the staff and management of the Times good fortune as they figure out how to change with this changing world.

Only 33 days until I get on the plane....

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