please empty your brain below
I buy a newspaper in the mornings to do the crosswords. I do not know if I would continue to buy one if the free "Metro" had a crossword.
Probably I still would (but perhaps not very day) as the articles are generally better in the quality paid for newspapers.
The "Evening Standard" is a bonus being free and with two crosswords, but I do not always find it available.
I used to buy the Standard in the past and would pay for it again if it reverted to charging.
I don't think newspapers should charge on the internet as the distribution cost to them via that means must be very low compared to paper and printing then delivery to the shops. They could make money on-line by advertising and special promotions.

John | 20.07.10 - 9:41 a.m. | #

If newspapers were A5 sized, I'd buy one every day. I generally read via my phone on the way to work, and then on the web at work.

But I just can't be bothered reading all that when it's so big and unwieldy.

Plus I generally don't read all the random stories. I find myself reading the big ones and ignoring the rest.

Kirk | 20.07.10 - 9:52 a.m. | #

It's the tiny bits of in-fill in the print versions that I like. Snippets of news (usually facts) that don't justify huge column inches of discussion. In fact, it is the endless opinion giving that I find so objectionable about print and online - I can't be alone given Twitter's success.

B | 20.07.10 - 10:08 a.m. | #

I owe most of my education to years reading Th.e Guardian, but now with The Diary & Steve Bell bookmarked I never buy the paper. I also read more other papers although I do wish I could stop reading the Daily Mail online it is strangely addictive in a warped right wing way

Joe | 20.07.10 - 10:42 a.m. | #

I read my newspaper's website every day, but wouldn't buy it here, because the printed European edition is a shadow of the UK edition, and far more expensive. Buying a [my!] newspaper is generally the first thing I do when I get through customs, but I still haven't finished reading it by the end of the weekend. I like to think I would buy it every day if I lived in the UK, but more than likely only if I could be guaranteed a solid half hour of quality reading time to make it worthwhile.

Wayne | 20.07.10 - 12:14 p.m. | #

Off topic: Enjoyed your Metroland report very much. I see a reunited High And Over is currently being marketed at in excess of £2m...

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-26472034.html

David | 20.07.10 - 12:31 p.m. | #

We may be an endangered species, but we'll be a long time becoming extinct.

I dip into the Guardian's website from time to time. It's a useful back-up reference for something I vaguely remember seeing months ago, and to link to specific items for people overseas.

But I wouldn't use the website as my first choice to read; it's just struck me that reading news on the web is made a bit harder because it doesn't have the same sense of "place" as print (the op-ed and opinions are here, the big spread picture is there, the less time-dependent and frothier stuff is somewhere else, and so on). The web evens it all out into something flatter, bittier and somehow unshaped.

Autolycus | Homepage | 20.07.10 - 1:06 p.m. | #

You are almost certainly an endangered species, but does that matter? Is it anything to fear? Future generations *will* do things differently - I'm unusually attached to locally stored e-mail for my age, but I don't mind... no-one is stopping me!

And, of course, it's a bit of a myth that newspapers were some great profit-making vehicle before the web came along. For much of British history, newspapers existed because proprietors enjoyed owning them. And some parts of the industry have always been cross-subsidising others: the global news page has never been a licence to print money, but it carries a cachet in other ways ;-)

Dominic Self | Homepage | 20.07.10 - 3:41 p.m. | #

I read the paper version of the Times about 4 days a week but read news online from various sources every day.

Mark Garth | Homepage | 20.07.10 - 5:40 p.m. | #

I pride myself on never having bought a newspaper. Nor do I ever visit any of their websites. It's hard to miss the media's influence (too many people say "did you hear about ..."), but they have nothing intersting to say. Their research levels are terrible and most papers these days just engage in PR churnalism and one-sided opinion pieces.

The death of the fourth estate would be no loss; they are not the cornerstone of Democracy that they purport to be.

Ayenbite of Inwyt | 20.07.10 - 6:33 p.m. | #

I tried reading the paper online when we were more or less snowed in but it was dreadful. Just too much clicking and back and forth. But mainly I keep shelling out because I want there to be journalists - sure there are lazy journalists out there who just rehash press releases but I'm not convinced bloggers can fill the gap of proper investigative paid for journalism. There's very few who are prepared to put in as much effort as DG does for his blog and it shows.

disgruntled | Homepage | 20.07.10 - 6:58 p.m. | #

My mum buys a paper and devours evey issue, even if she has a backlog after a trip! Then she cuts bits out and sends them to me in with good old hand-written letters! Oh so old fashioned, but I hope she never stops!

CornishCockney | 20.07.10 - 9:17 p.m. | #

One of the advantages of e-publishing is that mistakes and typos can be corrected after an edition has been put to bed. Unfortunately this deprives the reader of little gems such as the following from my local daily's paper edition yesterday: "Contractors were quick to stem the tide after a water man burst in Hine St."

Great Aunt Annie | 20.07.10 - 9:35 p.m. | #

I think the last time I regularly bought papers, the broadsheets were 50-55p. I didn't feel like I was throwing money away if I didn't read every page then (which I rarely did). I realise that it's nothing in terms of the cost of my commute or whatnot, but I just couldn't get my head around paying 90p for something I'd only half use.

Chz | 21.07.10 - 8:44 a.m. | #

Is this a little like vinyl? We like it as it's real and touchable. Digital media is temporary - or feels that way. Like the vinyl I don't think it will ever completely vanish.

innocent | Homepage | 21.07.10 - 11:19 a.m. | #

I like newspapers, but I don't seem to get as much of a chance to read them as I'd like.
Tomorrow, my electricity's going to be off for most of the morning, and I apparently need to be in for when they reconnect it. I'm very much looking forward to sitting back and reading the paper.

(*ahem*. I mean working from home with all the gubbins I printed out today)

martin | Homepage | 21.07.10 - 5:30 p.m. | #

I have either subscribed or stopped somewhere regular to get the daily paper every morning since the 80's as well. I seem to have OCD tendencies - I need my fix every morning or I can get surly!

Scoakat | Homepage | 22.07.10 - 2:40 a.m. | #

I stopped reading a newspaper for quite a while, but now the kids have guinea pigs I've started buying the absorbent Guardian again.

... and I've realised just how much good stuff there is in the paper that you never really get to see if you only read online.

Chris | 22.07.10 - 1:14 p.m. | #

Another great New Zealand paper-edition headline:
"Council to hire rubbish consultant"

Great Aunt Annie | 30.07.10 - 9:34 p.m. | #











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