Team-BHP - Do you still get newspapers delivered at home?

Yes!
Reduced though to only my regional language (Kannada) and the magazines
Still like to read through the paper version while having breakfast or coffee and solving those weekday and weekend crosswords! Nothing to beat that online
I do in parallel keep track of all news beforehand from online news websites

After what seemed to be a habit from my school days in 1971, I finally stopped subscribing to newspapers more than a year ago. This was primarily due to the reasons below:-

1. Ipad apps for TOI and Hindu are quite good. I can read local news of any city listed in the TOI app, which makes the coverage better than a newspaper.

2. I can no longer read the headlines and the front page while sipping coffee, thanks to the first page being taken over by full-page advertisements.

However, I do read newspapers in the office in the afternoon hours, to catch up with shopping offers, etc.

The declining trend in readership affected The Washington Post in 2010, when I was working for them on a project in Washington DC. They were even struggling to sell Newsweek, which was a premier magazine in the 70s and 80s. They finally sold both to Graham Holdings.

I feel sad for the people being laid-off. One of my deceased cousin's wife,who got the job in The Hindu on compassionate grounds, is now struggling to get a job.

Born and bought up reading 'The Hindu' paper like many other kids in south Bangalore, stopped reading it completely when I was old enough to form my own opinions. I will not cry on the day when the paper will go out of business. Nowadays , digital content is the only source for news for me and subscribe to 2 of them over here ( NYtimes and WaPo).

Reading newspapers and magazines was a habit my father got me interested in.
TOI was delivered to our home and I always remember my father reading the paper from first page to last.
The day after the budget, my father would get the Economics Times to read up about the budget.
This habit continued even though our TV channels cover the budget better nowadays.
It was the job of our servant to bring "The Afternoon" every evening just for the Busybee column and when I started going to college, it became my job.
This stopped once Busybee - Mr Behram Contractor - passed on.

But as my parents got older, their interest in the reading faded and paper delivery continues for legacy sake.
I only bother with the crosswords in Bombay Times and do all my news reading online.

I cannot get my parents to read news online so I guess the paper delivery will continue for now.

And another development - Moneylife Magazine announced that they would no longer home deliver the magazine for subscribers and it can only be read online from last month. Guess this is the future now.

For me the best use of a newspaper is to wet it and get the window panes & bathroom mirrors cleaned.

My mom and dad can't start their day without reading newspaper and I have seen getting them restless in case the paper is not on time. We have TOI and some hindi newspaper I guess Navabharat times but I never had courage to hold it in my hands. I prefer reading news articles on mobile coming in Google preferable content based on my interest areas. Otherwise I am not a big fan of reading or writing and prefer electronic media over paper.

Added this to my Office Signature.
--------------
3000 Paper sheets costs us one tree.
Let's Conserve. Avoid to take print, unless necessary.

While in college and for sometime after marriage, I had subscribed at various times to The Hindu, The Mint, The Deccan Chronicle, and The Times of India. Now I have not subscribed to any newspaper and I also don't watch TV news channels either. The reasons are obvious.

I have only one newspaper app in my mobile which I use to read the headline news by quick browsing. I also use Google News app but I am also conscious that the app pulls articles from traditional news media.

I love reading curated, interest-based articles on mobile through apps such as Flipboard and Quora. Another source of interest-based consumption is YouTube subscriptions to channels such as Vox, Seeker, The Daily Conversation, NowThisWorld, CaspianReport, and Spooksandooks. I also watch documentaries on Amazon Prime. On my DTH, I watch channels such as Discovery, NatGeo, The History Channel, Discovery Science, etc. I encourage my young son also to consume these types of media.

Sad.

We also need to question who is paying for the newsfeed/content online? How long the free party is going to last?

I know it appears to be doomsday outlook but fact is that content needs to be generated and especially in case of news feet on ground are very important. Who and how they get paid to make it economically viable?

Wither independent news?

I continue with the habit of our household in my childhood days: a 'dead tree' version (as they say in online circles) of The Hindu.

The environmental impact is the only guilt I feel, otherwise paper is easier on the eyes (and to clean surfaces, as others have mentioned).

I believe it is important to have these old-style news houses, just because they are news houses not media houses. TV ... most discussions generate heat rather than light, except discussions on Rajya Sabha TV (I was pleasantly surprised by that).

When something like a Kindle becomes available in India without being tied inextricably to something like Amazon, I'd want to move to an online subscription of The Hindu. Paper for kids ... The Hindu's Young World became a paid add-on long back, I guess that could be got in paper form.

The quality of the paper used to print The Hindu has been better than that of other newspapers, likely adding to their costs. And mass-entertainment pushed by the ToI has made it difficult too.

Wow. If you're on Team-BHP, you are very internet-friendly (participating in online discussions and all). I'm surprised by the poll results - an overwhelming majority of BHPians do get newspapers at home & many are hooked onto them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hayek (Post 4426470)

I have subscriptions for the FT and the New York Times, and occasionally read Bloomberg News as well

Big, big fan of NYTimes here :thumbs up. Regular reader.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sudev (Post 4426617)

We also need to question who is paying for the newsfeed/content online? How long the free party is going to last?

Advertisers (most websites) & subscribers (NYTimes, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg etc.). Print publications are going to have to trim the fat. It's not just news - any kind of print company is going to have to change. Even within the car world, see how many Indian car magazines are struggling or have shut down. Each & every one of them has see a decline in circulation in India.

Yes, I still subscribe to newspapers and read them too.

Coming to the Hindu. I am really sad to read this. I have been reading Hindu from childhood onwards (ever since i could read). My parents have always bought it and still do.

Ever since i moved out i too have been subscribing it (where ever i could). Till 2.5 years back there was no Mumbai Edition for Hindu, so i used to get a day old newspaper from Chennai.

Compared to TOI, the Hindu is expensive but totally worth it. The TOI subscription kind of paid for the Hindu (newspapers fetches you about 9 to 10 Rs/Kg). The Hindu Sunday editions are just amazing. There is so much to read that it takes a couple of days to finish it.

I do follow online news sites and watch TV (lot lesser now) but nothing beats the experience of reading a newspaper in the morning.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 4426683)

Yes. The poll results reflect the conventional model. I work for an online publication and in the last 15 years or so, the payment model has changed drastically. Till about 5 years, most online content sites depended on the revenue stream from the ads. Now the Ads have dried up even online.

Survival is a struggle in all media.

I have subscribed to almost all English language newspapers once. Now it is just TOI and Hindu. Not that I am a fan of TOI's sensationalism or its poor English. Together with the traditional Hindu, you can extract what may well turn out to be a semblance of 'news' in the morning.

You can't count on Reuters or FlipBoard from the mobile to fill in the local news. I need to know if they will cut the power in my locality for maintenance work - for example. There are some information still doled out in traditional newspapers.

Being one of the 'I prefer getting my news online' brigade, I still have to say that reading online isin't necessarily more 'eco-friendly' than a printed newspaper. With a newspaper there is certainly the direct impact of trees needed to make the paper and energy needed to distribute the paper. With digital readers, there is the footprint associated with generating the electricity needed to charge the device, the environmental impact of creating the devices, and the impact associated with disposing the batteries.

So it's not a straight case of one better than the other in terms of environmental impact. Like everything else, it depends on a lot of things, how the electricity is generated, how the by products are disposed of, to what level the associated components are recycled, etc.

I prefer the printed version of news rather than the debate shows on TV where everyone is yelling and screaming their backsides off.

I get The Hindu delivered home and mostly skim through the first few pages while eating breakfast. However, even before that, I actually start my day with the comics section. Who wants to start their day reading about corruption, murders and such depressing stuff?

Used to get Times of India but then since the quality went down the toilet, with only advertisements, nonsensical articles, I moved to Deccan Herald which subsequently went the ToI way as well.

Happy with The Hindu but they can do far better. Lots of spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and what not. As kids, we were urged to read newspapers to improve our English... not anymore:Frustrati

Yes. I do buy an English and a Malayalam Paper and do read it every day. The English paper is the Times of India which unfortunately is more advertisements than any useful news. In spite of that, skimming through it in the morning is an habit that I enjoy.

Being outside the state, the Malayalam paper is to cover stuff happening in Kerala in detail. Prefer reading my local language on paper rather than off the computer.