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We go through periods of taking the newspaper (delivered to our front porch in the too-goddamn-early morning), and then growing weary of it and then canceling the service.
Then we decide we miss it and start over again.
We read the front page, the back page, and the comics routinely. We read other
portions as catches our interest, or not.
I think the routine gets old, and we lose interest. But being addicts of the printed word, it's hard to do without and we repeat the cycle.
I'd like to receive a different newspaper from a different city every day. I think that the variety (Cow killed on Hwy. 37?) and nonstop learning curve (where do they keep their horoscope?) would keep it interesting, and we could quit yanking the poor delivery person to and fro.
something akin to my thinking
jornal_20di_e1rio_2...eri_f3dico_20diario
[po, Aug 10 2007]
[link]
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I work in a newspaper and I can say that this would be a bitch for the circulation department to keep up with. I'm not sure about other papers but we only offer single day deliveries for Sundays and Wednesdays, you can't get Thursday only for instance. But that doesn't mean this isn't a cool idea. |
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Not sure it's an invention though. |
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+ I think it's a cool idea. I stopped getting our local newspaper because they did away with the police log and it was the very best in entertainment. |
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I think the category makes it work. Yes, it would be hell to administer. |
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"Let's see, he's scheduled to get the Perth paper today, and he got the London paper yesterday..." |
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You'd want some good software. Oh hell, everybody would have to get the same paper on the same day, it would be too costly otherwise. Or maybe that could be the premium subscription option. |
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Interesting... I think the solution could be Internet based: build up a database of online local papers, and have your computer randomly download one and print it out for you automatically every morning. Everyone pays a subscription to the entire database, and each local paper gets a few pennies from every paper downloaded. |
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Damn, that about makes it work. Although I'm going to have to buy a new printer that does thirty-inch square sheets on both sides. |
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Probably wouldn't be THAT difficult. The papers could just swap data before printing so Paper A's presses were printing Paper B's editions for that day. |
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The problem I see is that all the ads would be for businesses in other towns, or if for national businesses they might have the wrong prices or items. |
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The whole issue of ad-based revenue gets ignored here just for that reason. |
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But ad based revenue is the vast majority of newspaper revenue. Your subscription fee barely covers the cost of the actual delivery guy. |
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No problem - just make sure all the ads in all the local papers share various different common formats, and the computer simply serves up the appropriate local ads on-the-fly in the ad-spaces provided in the unlocal paper's template. |
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Wow. This is actually bakeable with all of your input. That's scary. |
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// and have your computer randomly download one // |
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Accessibility issue: Not all newspaper readers have a computer in their dwelling. |
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Regardless, have a pastry. |
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Yeah, I like the thump of the paper disturbing my sleep, the agonizing decision whether it's early enough that the neighbors are all still abed and I can reach out unclothed and grab it, or is it so far out on the porch and so late that I need a bathrobe, splitting the paper into several parts to share. |
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This definitely needs to be printed and delivered, not home accessed. |
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No problem - just equip your local paperboy with a hugely cumbersome laser printer duct-taped to the back of his bike, complete with a wireless connection back to his ultra-modern newsagent base... |
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That bike would have to be supported by a tractor-trailer carrying all the paper. |
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Leave at least some of Faraway City's ads in the paper. That would be as entertaining as some of the stories. Plus we keep getting told that it's a "global marketplace", but I don't know what's sold anywhere except at my corner market. |
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Maybe it could be delivered in the early-morning of the timezone of origin - so you might get the "thump" any time of day or night, and try to guess what paper you'd got while you're running to see. |
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William Gibson might blink for a moment at this. |
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If the paper is from a remote place, it
probably doesn't matter if it's a few days
old. |
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Just have a facility whereby unsold papers
are collected, shuffled, and redistributed
as a pile of "random papers". Then, you
just deliver a "pot-luck paper" to
subscribers. |
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I would like to be able to pick a dozen or two cities that interest me. |
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Oh hell, in a few years Rupert Murdock will own and consolidate all of the interesting ones anyways, and then we'll have the Chicago - London - New York - Amsterdam - Montreal - Philadelphia - Tampa - Dublin - Sydney - Boston - Dallas - Kansas City - Los Angeles Enquirer anyhow. The only stories will be Paris Hilton's latest forray into the world of high fashion, Tony Blair's efforts in Palestine, and the invasion of the 600 foot baby. |
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What about language? If my paper today is from a different country that is non-english speaking, would it still be in english since I live in the USA? |
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I don't want a paper if i can't read it... |
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Surely all you need to do is set up a
website or Facebook group where
everyone
who joins pledges to send a local
newspaper to one other randomly selected
member. So everyone sends and receives
one paper per week. |
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If the paper is from far enough away that the news is entertainment rather than information, the distribution problem could be made easier by delivering a mixed bag on one day (ie on Monday each house on the street gets a different paper) and thereafter the newspapers are passed along the street for the next day. It would save on paper, too. |
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That would certainly make for getting to know your neighbors. |
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"It looks as though Mary likes her coffee black". |
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If you don't mind pre-read newspapers with the possibility of the Suduko already being partially (and wrongly) completed, international airlines are a good source of non-local papers. Arrange a collection service from your nearest Int'l Airport and you're good to go. |
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In my city, until a few years ago, the headline would
say: "Four Wounded in Car Crash" and a large picture
of the mayor. And that was it. There was no more
news. |
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