Life Without the Print Edition

Steve Outing writes on his Columns at Editor&Publisher

"I stopped getting the print edition of my local newspaper this month. Among my ew-media expert colleagues, I'm behind the curve with that move; many gave up the print habit long ago. But compared to the general population, I'm still ahead of most folks.

I admit, I feel a bit guilty about this. After all, I write for and offer advice to newspapers on an industry website. I support the newspaper industry and hope that it can come through the current downturn and learn to thrive in the new media world. So, wouldn't I want to support it by continuing to pay for printed newspapers to land on my driveway each morning, as a sign of solidarity with the industry?”

and shares his thoughts before and after his and his wifes decision to drop the subscription.

Lets do some "outing" about my own consuming behavior in regards to newspapers:
I stopped reading the newspaper (if it is not for a running job) four years ago. Going from standard three to four subscription of different newspapers to zero - I didn't feel guilty, I wanted to find out what would happened and was very unsure, whether I could manage for weeks or months to live without a printed newspaper. Short answer: I could and quite comfortable, until today (and tomorrow).

I’m still going to newspaper websites, but too often I don’t like what I see and feel they could do much better for ex-print-reader, for still-print-reader and could be print-reader. I have about 10 to 12 newspaper feed in my feedreader, but I don’t feel that this newspaper want my attention. They don’t deliver to my interest and timing, rarely steer-up my desire and (too) often my actions go in the wrong directions (for them).