January 22, 2009
Frozen in time front pages paint sad reality for hometown newspapers
It is the sameness of these newspaper fronts that helps me understand why I am so easily distracted when reading the print product so faithfully delivered to my house.
These images so proudly displayed - I saw them as they happened or on the national TV news.
And the sameness of choices emphasizes how much the leaders of this fading media think alike and not like the communities they live in.
The print edition of my adopted hometown newspaper gives me a few photos and quotes of people who live near me and drove, flew or rode to Washington D.C. to participate.
But I am still hungry to know more about their experiences. So little is there about the people from here.
I think about saving this paper as generations before me saved historic editions
But a look through the inside pages disappoints.
(coding issue - there's more)
There was a time when The Flint Journal would have published pages with the nation's best photos, an at-a-glance box of trivia or dates or ....
Instead, I count the house ads that might have shown me more about this day.
I wonder why I would be motivated to keep this paper beyond the next recycling pickup.
My print edition teased me with a few words of Obama's speech. There is no reminder that I can read or hear or watch that online at the company website.
Oh wait, that site's redesign is revealed today, removing the comfortableness of familiarity on the day I want the unusual.
Even a search for a package from a Michigan point of view is futile. I would have spent time with that. But I give up when I can't find it quickly.
I would have liked knowing what my governor, my senators, my state leaders and people had done
I would have read updates from the area youth who went. Were there expectations met?
After I finish the print paper, I quickly remember why I need the always online phone with me. I can find the answers I want about culture, national issues and such: Who designed Michelle's dress, how many balls did the couple attend and how many arrests.
I won't learn how many more years the company I hope to collect a pension from can continue to publish keepsake issues not worth keeping.>/span>
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