17 thoughts on “Question of the Day”

  1. Neither. I scan headlines online but I don’t have time to read anything in depth unless it:
    1. Is handy enough that I can read it while sitting in a chair;
    2. Does not crinkle and attract the baby’s attention.
    Right now I’m online to check in with worki. It’s 7:32am, I’m in my pajamas, the baby is rolling around naked on the bed (she soaked through her diaper), Noah is asleep and I’m standing in front of the dresser with the laptop on top. I’ll scan CNN after I’m done glancing through bloglines. Rinse. Repeat.

    Like

  2. I prefer the Sydney Morning Herald broadsheet to its online edition. A couple of factors: I’m not used to reading longer articles on-screen, so find the online edition difficult when they do longer “news review” articles on Saturdays; and layout. The online edition’s front page layout focuses on two things: big national news and tabloid news (“Tom Cruise dating Katie Holmes”). The broadsheet edition starts with national news, then world news, then opinion, then entertainment (and has much less celebrity gossip). It’s harder to find the opinion pieces in particular in the online edition. (Not hard as such, just harder.)

    Like

  3. Any in-depth articles I read online. I just read the comics and the opinion sections in paper, over breakfast. Can’t really read online over breakfast, and wouldn’t want to.

    Like

  4. The real thing is much nicer.
    Unfortunately, I live in a city where the real thing is not very good. Yet, I read it every morning…for the coverage of cows and cheese and the Green Bay Packers.
    I read my favorites (Washington Post, NYTimes) on-line. But it’s not the same.

    Like

  5. Oh, the Sunday paper! The big, fat edition with all the specials and the extra long comics! Sorely, sorely missed. We’re expats and live overseas (Romania), and we miss the print editions. We do read the online version of the Washington Post and the NYT. It’s OK but not the real thing. Creates a lot less paper trash, though. My green soul likes that.
    (Of course, we also have kids now, so that Sunday newspaper thing might not happen even if we were in the States.)

    Like

  7. I read more thoroughly when I read ‘real’ papers, but tend to skim online and thus read more that way. Plus, I can read the Guardian online.

    Like

  8. We get the local daily paper for local news, but often it sits unread except for the comics, sports, and crossword puzzle. I read the rest of my news online (or listen to NPR on the commute), counting on Google News Alerts and various RSS feeds to alert me to stories of interest, rather than comprehensively reading a paper cover to cover.
    If I had more time, I’d definitely buy the Sunday New York Times every week, but I, like Dawn, have a little one, which means not a lot of time for reading right now!

    Like

  9. The only “real” paper I read anymore is the Sunday NYT, and that’s really about coffee and sitting on my kiester, which isn’t always an option. It’s also a sad paper in a lot of ways. It’s like a plastic bag of bad news. My only relief is often from the marriage columns, which have great cute-meet stories, which my daughter and I scan for gay marriage announcements—I wish they could find a way to not have to add the “left” and “right” attributes in refering to the pictures so we could get even more gender-neutral.
    Other than that, its the WSJ every day—this was the first newspaper IMHO to really translate to the web without losing all of its layout flavor. Also the NYT and a couple of trade dailies.
    The best thing about news on the web is that you can read the daily rag from anywhere on the planet, just about.

    Like

  10. local – hard copy. also want my kids to see it around.
    international – it’s great to have access to so many other versions of the news.

    Like

  11. The *real* paper, please. Thank you very much.
    Online is okay, more up-to-the-minute for things like weather and breaking news stories. The local paper isn’t going to waste space on American Idol conspiracy theories…did Constantine REALLY get the fewest votes? 🙂
    BUT…how do you really READ a newspaper online? I can’t do my Newspaper Ritual with a little pixilated laptop screen.
    Lay the paper on the coffee table, extract Sports section and ads, set grocery store ads aside to read later, run eyes over Sports section briefly to see if the Cardinals did anything interesting, then arrange paper in Proper Reading Order: Front Page, Business Section (get the boring parts over with first, eat the spinach before the mashed potatoes), Metro, and finish up with the Accent section…saving the funnies for last, unless it’s Thursday. On Thursdays Miss Manners’ column is dessert.
    With paper properly arranged, adjust back pillow and move 20 lb. cat into armrest position. Read leisurely, laying finished paper sections on cat as you go, if kids are still napping when finished put head back on couch, close eyes to consider the state of the world, join cat in short afternoon nap.

    Like

  12. Most of the time I prefer online or downloaded to the Palm, because you waste less time skipping past the ads or turning to the right page and then getting frustrated because they told you the wrong page to turn to, etc. And your recycling doesn’t pile up as quickly.
    But once in a while, I miss relaxing with a real newspaper, so I’ll go out and buy a copy. And crosswords are much better on paper.

    Like

  13. During the week, I have little time to read the paper, so I skim through headlines online. Plus, with the speed of information these days, I find the dailies seem a bit outdated before it hits my front door.
    My husband reads the dailies during his commute, though.
    On the weekends, I love sitting down with the paper and reading it cover to cover. However, my purpose for reading the news is much different on the weekends. On the weekends, I’m not looking for current news. I’d rather read the Op-Ed pieces or the Travel and Arts Sections.
    I suppose I read online newspapers to receive up to the minute news and read the weekend paper newspaper for leisure.
    However, If I had to pick only one means of receiving my news, it would be paper. It worked for my parents and it works for me.

    Like

  14. The real paper. But I seldom have time. I even quit subscribing. I cruise headlines on line and most days that is as good as it gets.

    Like

  15. Every time I decide to cancel the paper, I end up re-subscribing: I find that when I reasd it online I ONLY pursue my usual interests, whereas when I read the whole paper (on the subway, on the floor while doing a downward-facing-dog, wherever) is when the unexpected stories, the nun who walked across Kansas for choice, the fact that the just abolished its human rights monitor in Afghanistan — all that comes into focus.
    And I’m glad I’m not the only one scanning the Sunday Styles section for the gay weddings. And now I’m reminded of a great unsung New York poet, Barry Wallenstein:
    But, myself, I scan the daily papers now,
    study first the box scores
    then the obituaries.
    There’s the need to know
    who’s won and lost ……

    Like

  16. Melissa and I are former journalists, and we both are huge fans of the daily paper. In terms of our individual reading habits, though, we’ve divided up our responsibilities. Like ADM, I get a lot of reading done online; from my office I’ll scan lots of newspapers and magazines, reading articles as they catch my eye or as blogs like this one recommend them (and as I have time). Melissa, by contrast, reads the local paper (which doesn’t have very much or very good national and world news, obviously) almost all the way through, pretty much every day. So I tell her what’s going in the world via the blogosphere, and she tells me what’s going on at city hall and in the school system. (That means she also gets first crack at bonehead local letters to the editor, something we both enjoy.)

    Like

  17. Love reading the paper offline – I have a ritual where I eat breakfast, turn on the Food Network, and browse through the paper. Sunday mornings wouldn’t be the same without it.

    Like

Comments are closed.