A reader's perspective

Want to know why readers are abandoning printed newspapers? If you check out Dave Thomer's NotNews.org blog, you'll read how he can get most of the Philly Inquirer online, for free and for the most part earlier than it arrives on his doorstep. He writes that he wants to pay for good local reporting.

On the philly.com Web site, a lot of Inquirer and Daily News writers have blogs, chats and Q-and-A forums. And that’s great, but you know, analysis and opinion isn’t really the niche newspapers are suited to fill. I can get analysis and opinion from any number of blogs and web sites. Honest to god reporting, though, that takes resources and skill. It’s what I wanted to support by buying the Inquirer. But if they’re not going to give me any, why should I bother? ... I don’t need to kill more trees to bring an out of date news aggregator to my doorstep once a day. And I don’t need to keep paying money for something I don’t want and that doesn’t give me what I’m paying for.

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