Our Old Friend, the Newspaper

I'll admit, the only print newspaper I ever read while I'm at school in Miami is the school newspaper, the Hurricane. I pick it up every Monday and Thursday morning in the dining hall and read it while I'm eating breakfast and on my walk to work. To catch up on real news, I browse the New York Times online and sometimes my local newspaper, The Staten Island Advance. So why if I can read my other news online do I rush to finish the Hurricane in its print edition before I go to work?

What's great about the Hurricane is that it's small and relatively easy to fold, although I still often have trouble doing so while I'm walking through the wind. Yesterday, as I flipped the page, a loose Geico ad fell out of the paper. You could imagine how annoyed I was when it fell to the ground and I had to pick it up and find a trash can to dispose of it in. At that moment, I thought to myself, why do I bother with this? Why don't I just read the online version during my free time at work or throughout the day?

I really have no idea. Something about picking up the paper two mornings a week just appeals to me. I don't feel like I'm getting the full paper when I read it online. Even reading my home newspapers online doesn't quite satisfy me as much as reading the actual paper when I'm home. I'm not alone in this. Millions of Americans, young and old (although more the latter), still pick up the morning paper. Online journalism enthusiasts insist newspapers are on the way out, but there must be something there that keeps us reading them. Whatever that something is, newspaper companies and print journalists hopes it lasts; their business depends on it.