How many of you still read the printed version of your hometown newspaper? I do. I look forward to sitting down around 11 AM with  cup of coffee and going through the paper leaving the Jumble and Crossword puzzles for the last before I get dressed and start my day.

Many things have changed with the paper, first and foremost the price. To subscribe for a year costs, for our city paper, over $230 a year plus a “transportation cost” of close to $20 each three months. I have tried to find out what that charge means as I know of the 260 apartments here I am not the only one who gets the paper delivered and they are not just transporting it to me!

Along with that there is a $2 charge each for the football preview issue, the guide to the arts issue and the Thanksgiving Day issue.

You now have to buy, each week, the TV magazine section if you want it. They have eliminated the Sunday magazine issue plus instead of a Lifestyle and a separate Travel and Leisure section they have combined both eliminating many columns and sections they had for both. The comics are no longer in color every day. Oh yes, you have to request weekend ad section if you want it.

The Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday issues are almost laughable with the news sections being so thin you could make a paper airplane out of them. The one thing they haven’t changed, or charged extra for, YET, is the Friday Showtime section telling you about all that’s going on in town.

It is no secret that papers are losing money left and right and they would be very happy if you would subscribe to their digital versions but those versions don’t have the ‘important’ sections: comics, TV schedule, crossword puzzle, Jumble, etc. I have also found that many limit the number of articles you can read per month unless you want to pay a premium price.

The sad thing is that by the time the printed version of the paper is delivered you have heard all the news on television. It use to be the newspaper did in depth  stories on the current news but that is no longer true. Like your local TV half hour news programs they are all short, mostly puff, pieces. Google, Bing, Yahoo have become the newspapers of today!

Do I really NEED those comics, the Jumble and Crossword puzzles, in front of me on the table as I sip my coffee every morning? Time to make another change in life?