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May 12, 2009

Stephanie Salter: All the reader responses about newspapers I could fit into print

By Stephanie Salter

For health, I want a doctor; for legal aid, a lawyer; for taxes, an accountant; for my news, a journalist; professionals all.

— Tribune-Star reader Char Minnette



Reviewing reader response to my question — Why do you want a real newspaper in your hands? — four natural categories emerged: Regular Features, Convenience, Other Uses and (sorry) Love.

Often a single response included all four categories, as an e-mailer, letter writer or caller described her or his earliest memories of reading a newspaper, then listed the many aspects of a paper that — even in 2009 — justify the price of a subscription or a newsstand purchase.

Folks used terms like “love affair.” They were lyrical about the “smell of newsprint.” They said they did not know what they would do if their newspaper stopped.

People like reading the paper by themselves, in bed with their spouse or in public at a lunch counter. Donald Gamble of Terre Haute said he tries to carry a Tribune-Star with him wherever he goes, especially in his car.

“Everyone who lives (and drives) in our fair city should always have something to read in their vehicle in order to have something to do when sitting at the railroad crossings,” he said.

Gamble’s handwritten note was one of several that brought a lump to my throat. He began: “I recently lost partial vision in one eye, which is untreatable. The first question I asked, after I prayed, was — What will I do if I can’t read my paper every day, when I want to and where I want to?”

Jack Tucker of Brazil echoed the sentiments of his wife, Susie: “The thought of being without a newspaper in the morning with my cup of coffee is up there with the thoughts of a funeral for a loved one.”

Terre Haute North Vigo High School teacher Jim Eslinger wrote, “I would hate to think I would get up in the morning and could not have a copy of the Tribune-Star to hold in my hands, to spread out on the breakfast table, to smell the newsprint.”

Remembering his days as a Star paperboy, Eslinger described his pre-dawn bike runs and special aerodynamic folding process for each paper on his route.

“I would read the sports page. If my favorite player, Roy Campanella, number 39, Brooklyn Dodgers, had been successful in yesterday’s game, it made my delivery of 74 papers go joyously,” Eslinger wrote. “Campy is long gone, but there is still a relaxation, a contentment that comes from reading about local and national events.”

Mary Hood pretty much hit all four categories in her message.

“I do not own a computer, therefore I would be totally lost if I didn’t find the Tribune-Star on my front porch every morning when I get up,” she said. “My first interest is the obituary column. If I’m not listed there, then I can get on with my day.”

Hood said she starts with her favorite columns, kicks into gear with the news, then works the crossword, Jumble, Cryptoquote and Sudoku.

“How would I challenge my mind each day if I didn’t have all those things to keep me thinking???!!!” she asked. “I need the newspaper every day and am perfectly willing to spend part of my Social Security check to keep it coming.”

Ann Butwin is ready to sacrifice, as well: “I love the paper and would rather give up cable than not have the paper.” An Internet user, she said she prefers the portability and shareability of paper papers. Besides, “The newspaper is always ready and can be read even during a power outage.”

Sandy Burpo of Terre Haute actually did the math.

“At a little over 58 cents per day for the paper, I more than get my money’s worth by using coupons,” she e-mailed. “Yesterday’s trip to the store had a $5 savings from coupons (about 9 days paper costs) … Yes, I am a dedicated subscriber as well as a bargain hunter and I believe that the paper delivers value every day.”

Connie Atkinson, unlike most readers from whom I heard, did not start reading newspapers as a child or young adult: “I was a late bloomer [age 50] to the pleasure of newspaper reading but have become a full blown convert.” She likes everything from a paper’s portability to its clipability.

“My husband and I are transplants to Terre Haute, but our children were born and raised here,” Atkinson said. “Reading the newspaper makes me feel more of a part of this community we all call home. I realized how much information I gather from reading the newspaper when I noticed how often I was starting a sentence with the phrase, ‘I saw in the newspaper that …’ I am a frequent user of all things computer, but I want the feel of paper with my daily news.”

So does Betty Phillips Luken, who has been reading newspapers since the 1950s: “I don’t know what I’d do if we ever don’t have a paper because it is just like breathing with me.”

Jude Ciancone was on the same page with Connie Atkinson about community: “Mostly, I like reading the T-S because I connect with the people, events and places being written about. Being from Los Angeles, I never felt that connection until I came here.”

An affinity since childhood

Joanne Jones of Clinton said, “I’ve been reading the newspaper ever since I was 12 years old at St. Mary’s orphanage in Nashville, Tenn.” There, “my teacher, Sister Teresita taught me how to follow a story, how to do a cut-out of it and to be sure and put the date and name of the newspaper at the top … to make a scrapbook of the day’s events.”

A Mark Bennett and Mike Lunsford fan, Jones said of the Tribune-Star, “I learn something new every day, and it certainly keeps my mind active.”

Eloise Weymouth said of newspaper reading, “It’s been a tradition since I was a child … sitting down … with my parents, then my kids, and now just me. Where else can I learn about what’s happening locally, look for pictures of my grandkids at school or friends at a party? I can clip coupons, discover new recipes, learn about new vacation destinations and get my mind enlightened all in one sit-down. Decide if I agree or disagree with a columnist, discover a long lost ancestor, or laugh at the cartoonists … all of these I can find in my newspaper.

“And I can hold it, leaf through it, go back to it later, send to my friends in other states or even clip a good article to keep. It’s kind of like a department store on paper. Most all of this I could do on a computer, but I couldn't find it all in one spot nor could I have the pleasant feeling of just sitting down and looking at it, especially on a Sunday morning, with my coffee … I can’t imagine going on without it.”

Fine wine or world window?

Charlie Barth, who started reading Terre Haute newspapers upon high school graduation in 1966, said the paper is “like fine wine, it just keeps getting better … I can think of no better way to start the day off than reading our newspaper and closing my day by reading the Bible. They seem to go hand in hand.”

Mary Rose Hemminghouse called the Tribune-Star “my ‘window on the world’ each morning. I wouldn’t give it up for anything.”

Lifelong “confirmed reader,” Joe H. Petty wrote: “Sure, there are other outlets in cyberspace, but they tend to be rather dry and impersonal. The newspaper gives greater depth, with the warmth of real human beings who love their community and put their energy, vision and spirit into every word and every column.

“We in Terre Haute and environs are lucky to be able to avail ourselves of the daily output of a truly outstanding reporting staff. More power to you.”

As did dozens of readers, Petty asked, “P.S. Have you ever tried to work a crossword puzzle in cyberspace?”

Ann Short Chirhart contradicted a popular theory about print journalism.

“What surprises me about some Americans’ perspectives of print media is that they see print media as biased or too liberal,” she wrote. “Try checking out blogs. Blogs emphasize a political perspective to a greater degree than print media ever has. Moreover, responsible blogs rely on print media for their investigative sources. Try checking their links and see where you go.

“No individual blogger has the resources to conduct investigative journalism like print media does. Can a blogger afford to travel to Afghanistan to see what is happening on the ground? Can a blogger afford to investigate a topic such as the current economic crisis? No.”

Music to my ears.

I could go out with a joke; there were plenty about newspaper window wipes, cat box linings, garbage wrap, toilet paper and rain hats. But I prefer the last word go to Clay Wilkinson:

“The information we dredge from newspapers often serves as the basis upon which we build our daily thoughts and conversations. Wherever we are, at home or astray, ours would be a more isolated, lonelier, less civic and less civil world without them … We read newspapers because they allow us to relate to the world around us, the world in our immediate vicinity as well as worlds more distantly held, and because of our humanity, because we crave that sense of community, continuity and relevance, that feeling of interconnectedness.”

Borrowing from a T-shirt his brother wears, “I fish because the voices inside my head tell me to,” Wilkinson closed: “We read the paper because our psyches tell us to.”

Stephanie Salter can be reached at (812) 231-4229 or stephanie.salter@tribstar.com.

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