On buying newspapers

Posted on June 25th, 2008 by Richard Catto 2,561 views

My favourite Boer Blogger, Johan Swarts, mentioned today in his blog that he’s no longer prepared to buy a newspaper because by the time he reads their news, it’s already old news, having been picked up by him already either on his laptop or cellphone.

As a side issue, he mourns the plight of the homeless bergies (who use newspapers as blankets) and slap chip purveyors (who he thinks still use newsprint to wrap their chips).

I’ll second you on the bergie issue, Johan, but the Fish and Chip shops have long ditched newsprint in favour of pristine white wrappers. At least the good ones have. The ones I buy from. Yes, I am a snob.

My father and my brother both buy and read newspapers religiously whereas I have eschewed them for as long as I can remember. I can’t recall a time that I bought any newspaper religiously.

If I recall correctly, I believe it was Vincent Maher who blogged that newspaper circulations continue to rise despite the encroachment of freely available online news. I wonder if that was just media spin from a person who is employed by a large South African paper? Or perhaps things have changed since then?

I wonder if in 20 years time, all doubt will have been removed and we will know that printed newspapers are now in a steep decline?

I just can’t see printed newspapers as having a very long term future.

Tags: Johan Swarts, Newspapers
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