The end of an era

As usual this morning, I was sitting at the computer having my third cup of coffee and waiting for the paper to arrive, lately sometime after 9:00 a.m. When it didn’t come, I remembered I had cancelled my subscription a few weeks ago, effective today, October 1st. Thus ends about forty years of uninterrupted daily delivery of a morning paper and a change in the habit of nearly a lifetime. I’m a little surprised it isn’t more painful

I love newspapers. I follow current events like some guys follow sports, with a passion and great attention to detail. I got my first subscription in 1969 when I shipped out (flew out, actually) to Vietnam and my thoughtful mother bought me a subscription to the San Francisco Chronicle. She knew I love to read the paper every morning, and receiving the Chron by mail about a week late kept me feeling connected to home. There was life going on back there and I knew I was going to get back to it sooner or later.

For the last twenty-seven years or so it’s been The Oregonian, which I consider to be a very good daily paper. It used to be delivered about 5 a.m., and I could wake up, have coffee and read most of the paper before leaving for work. Then it started coming about 7;30, so when I was still working I had to read it after I got home in the afternoon. Not as good.

Now, though, it comes sometime after nine, and the distributor explained to me that it had to do with changing routes to use gas more efficiently. By 9, I’ve already read most of the Washington Post and New York Times online and had too much coffee to even think about pouring another cup. At most, I’d scan the front section and read a couple of editorials.

And then they raised the subscription price from $30 a month to $40 a month. I just couldn’t justify the expense anymore.

There are a lot of reasons at least a few daily papers should stay in business, and a lot of reasons they probably won’t. Give them maybe twenty years. Fifty at the outside. So I guess it is a little painful to step back while they’re still available. I’ll probably still buy the Sunday paper in the newsstands and have breakfast or coffee in a café. Most days, though, I’ll get all my news and opinion online. With email updates from the Times and Post.

I’ll miss the funnies, though.