TOTALLY off-topic rumination

[FayetteDore]

At the risk of being labeled a hopeless, nostalgic boomer by the board's younger posters:

Am I the only one who misses a big thick Sunday newspaper, printed in or close to your own town, with a late-night deadline for sportswriters who wrote for a big thick sports section where you could read several stories and feature sidebars and stat boxes and game notes and a solid recap of the game and photos about your favorite hometown college team and the other big college teams in your state? Wouldn't it be great to be holding that newsprint and reading Brent and Auric and Roanoke, and see Admin's photos (where have they gone?)!?! And yes, SOME of that is here on my MacBook Pro, and yes, I can read about practically any team in the country; that's the positive.

And when you finished the sports section, there was the rest of the newspaper, with actual news coverage and cogent analyses of the issues facing your town and state, and national columnists who you either respected or despised -- and of course the Sunday comics.

Only oldsters need reply. 8-)

[AirForceDore]

I miss it too. I still remember when the Tennessean started printing in color.

[VU1970]

I miss locally-owned newspapers.

[wbl]

I live in Kansas City…it took me about 10 minutes to read my Sunday paper…it’s that way mostly everywhere.

[OldDude]

FayetteDore. This is the OT post of the century. The Tennessean (and other papers around the country I am sure) wonder why their subscription rates are down ? Because the papers are not worth reading any more. Cancelled my home delivery many years ago. Electronic media move info more quickly so a tip of the hat to technology, but the print media abandoned their edge which is the appeal of actually reading in depth info without burning your retina into ash. Definitely miss the five pound Sunday paper which reached out with info unconcerned with constraints of a 30 second sound bite.

Old fart rant over.

[geeznotagain]

Definitely miss the five pound Sunday paper which reached out with info unconcerned with constraints of a 30 second sound bite.

Old fart rant over.

I agree. But for a couple of years (many decades ago) I had to DELIVER the 5 pound Sunday newspaper. And that was a b *%^h. This happened so long ago that (and most younger folks probably cannot comprehend that this is really true), once each month I had to re-trace my "paper route" steps and knock on doors and collect the monthly payment. That sounds so archaic now. When you figure that time in with the newspaper delivery time I probably made about $1 an hour. Working a paper route keeps you in shape, I'll say that for it.

[FayetteDore]

Geeznotagain, I did exactly the same thing -- for both morning and afternoon newspapers -- first on a bicycle and then on a small motorcycle. And "collecting" the weekly, or for some customers, the monthly bills. And having to eat the costs of the papers delivered to deadbeats who wouldn't answer the door or would tell me to come back next week. Too bad it wasn't pay-in-advance but it wasn't.
Except for having to get up before dawn, I liked it. I felt like I had a role in delivering the news. What innocent times.

[LawoftheWest]

The rise of the internet has diminished print newspapers in a major way. Advertising, the major source of newspaper revenue, has transferred to internet sources.

As a side effect, I have heard people say they trust an internet chat room for news more than they trust the traditional sources, such as TV news and newspapers. They claim that TV and newspapers are controlled by big corporations, or by government, which they don't trust (think of getting COVID news from chat rooms - yikes). Never mind that newspapers have editors who challenge the reporters to defend their sources and to tighten their writing. None of that on the internet, where there is a free-for-all. Granted, there has been a major consolidation of newspapers. However, in my view that is the result of the financial losses newspapers have suffered due to loss of advertising.

My home town once had two newspapers. One is now long gone due to financial losses. The same happened in Nashville.

I too delivered newspapers when I was a kid. My worst memories was getting the papers during a rain storm when they were soaking wet. I had to separate them for delivery. No fun in that.

[AuricGoldfinger]

I loved my local news so much that I subscribed to the Tennessean all four years I was at Vanderbilt.

[FayetteDore]

I loved my local news so much that I subscribed to the Tennessean all four years I was at Vanderbilt.

And I should hasten to add, should have added in my OP, that this is in no way an attack on current newspaper staffers, including the local ones. They're not responsible for the state of the industry and they do a good job under conditions totally beyond their control. I admire them for sticking with it because we DO need them, as LawOfTheWest indicated above.

I'll shut up now.

[docdore]

At the risk of being labeled a hopeless, nostalgic boomer by the board's younger posters:

Am I the only one who misses a big thick Sunday newspaper, printed in or close to your own town, with a late-night deadline for sportswriters who wrote for a big thick sports section where you could read several stories and feature sidebars and stat boxes and game notes and a solid recap of the game and photos about your favorite hometown college team and the other big college teams in your state? Wouldn't it be great to be holding that newsprint and reading Brent and Auric and Roanoke, and see Admin's photos (where have they gone?)!?! And yes, SOME of that is here on my MacBook Pro, and yes, I can read about practically any team in the country; that's the positive.

And when you finished the sports section, there was the rest of the newspaper, with actual news coverage and cogent analyses of the issues facing your town and state, and national columnists who you either respected or despised -- and of course the Sunday comics.

Only oldsters need reply. 8-)

thank you, fayettedore, for distracting us maniacs from the painfully sad realities of our football program currently.

[LawoftheWest]

Another factor in the decline of newspapers just occurred to me. Evening newspapers lost readership as more households got television.

Up through the 50's and even the 60's and to a lesser extent the 70's, when men came home from work they read the evening newspapers. Then, they slowly migrated to television for the evening news. The Nashville Banner finally closed in 1998. The irony is that many years earlier it helped the Tennessean out of bankruptcy by finding a buyer for the Tennessean.

[MikenNashville]

In my younger years, If I recall correctly, in the fall the Tennessean had an expanded sports section on Mondays dubbed Monday A.M. that covered all the SEC and NFL football games over the weekend with a preview of MNF. At the time John Bibb and Jimmy Davey covered Vanderbilt and IMHO we got fair coverage. Later on fair coverage? not so much. The second nail in the coffin (first being TV) for local newspapers was the US Today model and simultaneously corporate takeovers - see Gannett -The next
(and really final) nail was the internet revolutionizing media. On a micro level the final nail for the Tennesseam happened when they moved their printing presses out of Nashville, I canceled my subscription months ago by then I had already read everything 2 days before for even local news.

[AuricGoldfinger]

On a micro level the final nail for the Tennesseam happened when they moved their printing presses out of Nashville, I canceled my subscription months ago by then I had already read everything 2 days before for even local news.

I saw the tweet below last weekend and nearly lost my mind:

[tweet][/tweet]

[Seadog73]

And the sheep don't notice the same stories running for weeks on the like of CNN Online and Fox News online (I read both, got to know what the other is saying, I learned that at VU).

[CrimeDore]

I’m younger than a boomer; my parents are boomers. But I miss the Sunday print paper too - and the other days of the week. I still read the weekend editions of the New York Times in print. I miss the local paper, though, especially the weekend sports coverage. Reading it online just isn’t the same to me.

[Golddore68]

Along the same lines, I miss the days when The Sporting News was the authority on college sports and baseball.

I was a longtime subscriber to The Sporting News in the 80’s and ‘90’s. They always had the full box scores from every major league game. They had unique feature articles on every aspect of baseball and college sports.

And their preseason yearbook specials were the best! Back before the internet, all the information you needed about the upcoming college basketball and college football and major league baseball and the NFL(and all the other pro sports, but I only bought those four preseason yearbook specials). Each team’s roster and schedule was included.

They also predicted how each team would finish. Of course, they always picked Vanderbilt last. Even after Fogler took us to the Sweet 16, the next year they still picked us last in the SEC East!

Now you can get all that information from the internet. And the Sporting News doesn’t put all the baseball box scores in anymore (but you can get that from the internet). And their preseason yearbooks are trash.

But back in the day, I LOVED TSN!

[BrentVU]

The Atlanta Braves won on Saturday night to reach the World Series for the first time in 22 years. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution put out a keepsake section titled, "Let's Party Like It's 1999!" Here's the kicker: it was online only! (How are you supposed to keep an online keepsake section?) But due to demand from readers, on Tuesday they printed it and made it available for their print subscribers. Good for them!

I've got dozens of old copies of the Tennessean after a big Vandy win that I've saved. I'm not sure I'd want to keep anything that the Tennessean would want to put out today... not that Vandy has provided fans with a lot of unforgettable wins lately.

[HarpoMarx]

When I was at the 2019 College World Series Finals, I would have my daughter, back in Nashville, pick me up a Tennessean on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I got back on Thursday and knew that the actual stories about winning the Natty would not be out until Friday. The only reason I buy a Sunday Tennessean now is to use the paper to start a fire in my chimney for the grill.