Do You Read The Paper?

Roy Clark has a column suggesting it's our duty to read the print version of the newspaper. Lots of folks are arguing about it, some suggesting its a dated model of distributing information.

Okay.

I read the papers. I am 29.

It started in college. I liked the feel of a paper under my arm. I liked carrying the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette to class, like it said something about who I was. Literate. Concerned. Whatever. Tom Wolfe has talked about this.

Now I like walking to the end of the driveway for my daily touching of the wood. I start the coffee, fix Asher a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios, head for the paper. I'm always surprised to see how many people around us have papers in their driveways. Sometimes Asher wants to get it herself. Sometimes she asks to see the "silly pages."

If we keep doing stuff we display here, there's a shift coming in how people percieve the paper. There's a retro quality to the paper that we should be embracing. The paper still says something about who you are, more than opening a laptop.

Drag out the mast heads from the 1890s. Longer, deeper, better stories. Fewer gimmicks and gee-gaws. More personality.

The newspaper might offer something else at a time when there is an unlimited amount of information floating out there. It's a local guide to what's important. How can a community be on the same page if its people have no connecting point?

But what do I know?