News

        The New York Times is the biggest newspaper. EVER. They're the newspaper other newspapers read. They are the informational heart that has been steadily pumping vital news to the rest of America, and the world for that matter, for over 162 years. They're not going anywhere but the paper game might not be so lucky...

              Today the New York Times costs vary with different packages offered. It is obvious they want people to continue to get papers delivered. They offer free digital access to their content with a paper subscription. This makes sense because a paper is a tangible item you pay for per unit. You cannot pay for a day of streaming info.online with the same satisfaction (you) or justification (NY Times) as you can with an actual newspaper. Could you imagine them charging you for access to the websites on Sunday only? of course not. Newspapers are quantifiable. They can be broken down and profited from much more than constant streaming information. The cost of subscription for just the Sunday paper is $4.10/week for the first twelve weeks. The cost of the daily delivery package is $8.08/week for the first twelve weeks. What happens after twelve weeks is unclear but I would bet my dying breath that the price goes up, it is the NY TIMES. So why would a subscription for one day only cost half as much as a daily subscription? Why would they offer free online services and apps with ANY subscription to paper delivery? Because they want people to get the paper EVERY SINGLE DAY! They're sinking and they need business.

                 I don't believe that any newspaper has a snowball's chance in hell at making it through the next decade. I do Believe that the NY TIMES has the best chance at dying a prolonged, dramatic, and torturous death. They deal with international stories more than any other paper. They are the ones that first dip their toes into the unknown and test the controversy before other papers ride their coattails. They have the broadest audience of mediocre readers, not dummies like USA Today, or the few elitists with the WALL STREET JOURNAL. They have more stability in mediocrity. They have the largest city backing them. It would be a whole different ball game if the paper was from Albuquerque. Cities like Baltimore, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., etc. simply will not be able to compete with the nostalgia of tens of millions of New Yorkers who will fight to keep their local paper alive.I believe nostalgia is the biggest strength newspapers are surviving on right now. That nostalgia will die out as the current workforce enters, or approaches, retirement. 

               Once my generation and the one below mine make up the majority of the workforce, all newspapers will be dead. There will be less cost involved with online news feeds. Currently, the news is laid out, designed, and published the morning before you read it. I never understood that, people read today's news before the day hardly even begins. With online subscriptions, you can get news instantly as it happens. On top of that, you're gonna have all the hippies crying about wasted material used to print newspapers that are talking about yesterday's news. All so some old guy can drink his coffee with his paper like he's done for fifty fuckin years. That's what it boils down to: People are afraid of change. Once those people no longer make up the deciding majority, that change is gonna come. Until then, The New York Times will fight the longest, holding on to the routines of all the sheep that believe and follow them.