I dug into some old boxes over the holidays and found this Business section cover from 1989, which I had used to wrap something. Here it is, compared to the Jan. 10, 2014, business cover. We all know that newspapers have gotten smaller, but this makes a good illustration of how much space has been cut.
ladailymirror.com 
At least the good old NY Times is still wide enough for me to make a nuisance out of myself on the subway. I will never forgive them for killing their weekly TV schedule booklet, though.
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Yeah, they’re all trying to kill off their paper editions, by reducing the pages, stories, etc. to nothing, cutting back on customer service or what you get. It doesn’t cost any more to hold a paper and then deliver than it did five years ago, but the LA Times, will no longer do it, but they’ll deliver to a spot while you’re on vacation. So far, I’ve had it delivered to friends who don’t get the Times, so they’re spending more money delivering there than they would just keeping it and delivering to my home. If I can find someone who lives at Death Valley or Catalina, I will have my paper delivered there while I’m on vacation so they can spend astronomical sums to deliver it someplace else, because I ain’t not going to get something I’m paying for.
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It’s sad that few people read newspapers anymore. A majority of people get their news electronically through TV or the internet. The news on the internet is usually in video format so there is no depth. When I glanced at your 2014 example, the headline was about Ultra HD TVs. Here is a fact that few people will believe. There are more VCRs than desktop computers.
http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/forget-4k-tvs-most-americans-still-own-vcr-2D11876842
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I’m happy to say that on NJ Transit trains, PATH trains and the NYC subways, you still see a good many people reading actual newspapers. Of course, some of them are the Post or the News (“for people who like to read fast or have to read slow”), but still . . .
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I’m a 1970 model, married to a guy born in ’72, sometimes described as “old souls”. This breaks my heart. Hubs graduated w/ a Journalism degree, in 1994. He’s an award-winning writer, son of an ad exec. I went to Comm school, too, w/ a mom in editorial work. It’s in our blood—especially his. I watched my grandparents read the afternoon paper cover-to-cover every day. My parents took the morning rag, which still exists, in a greatly diminished form—both in size & content. My grandparents’ favorite folded in 1998, having run since 1876. So hubby, who went on to get a Master’s in media, writes the occasional column, teaches the occasional class, & tries to find time to write the great American novel, while working in insurance. He’d work for slave wages, if there was a local paper job available, but they are in decline, reducing staff. I blog a bit, but so do lots of folks, & I read a great deal, including this blog, which is a favorite. Still, reading digitally cannot compare to glorious smudgy newsprint ink on one’s fingers. I’ve been reading newspapers since I was a kid, & with every one that folds, that beautiful life landscape on paper, we lose more than words. We lose, to some degree, a quintessential part of American life.
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My heart broke when the Philadelphia Bulletin, which I grew up reading, went out of business. And my resume–newspaper, magazine and book publishing; editing; advertising–might as well have been written in the 19th century. If I put down “corset saleswoman” or “blacksmith,” I could not be any less marketable.
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Exactly. I find hubs & I are more likely to find work w/ older hiring managers. This isn’t because we or they are luddites—we’ve kept our skills current, tech-wise, but we share older, if progressive, values & sensibilities. I think the modern term for both of us is “throw-backs”. Those darn young whipper-snappers may be right about something, there.
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