Raise your hand if you still subscribe to and read a hardcopy newspaper every morning or day.
It’s OK if you don’t. In the modern era, newspapers are just as easily, if not more so, accessible online. Whether on your cellphone, tablet, or laptop/desktop computer, readers can just upload their daily “rag” without the deemed hassle of walking out the front door to retrieve it every morning. If that’s your gig, it’s all good. You are consuming the same content, just differently.
However, there is just something about getting that rolled bundle, taking it out of the plastic, and sitting down in your favorite reading place early in the morning.
Ah!
For some, like me, it is the golden silence of the early morning when no else has stirred from their slumber yet. (Go ahead. Take your time waking up). The trouble has been taken to brew a pot of coffee, and there your cup sits, on the table next to you, with the steam rising.
There are different methods that readers employ to read their newspaper. Some browse: they look at the headlines on each page of each section, and that’s all they need to get their info fill. Some select certain sections and disregard the rest. That may mean that they read more than just the headlines (or not) to satisfy their curiosity. Others read all of the sections, headlines and all. Or this may mean combing through some sections with more oriented detail than others.
The “Front Page” section is an important and typically current one, for it contains all of the previous day’s significant national and world events. Depending on what is happening around the world and its importance, an event might be printed in one or sometimes a few different stories. The bigger the story, the better the chance of this. In the newspaper today, for instance, there were at least three stories on the apprehension of a man in Pennsylvania suspected in the killing of the CEO of United Healthcare in New York City just one week before. My curiosity has been and is piqued by this story, and I read each article word for word. Other articles on political crises or wars in the Middle East or elsewhere are often headline reads for me. National news is also in these first pages, which also cover every thing from politics, crime, foreign affairs, the economy and business, state news, interesting feature stories, and other serious matters.
Sometimes business and entertainment may be contained in the first section if it is a smaller newspaper.
Many newspapers also have a Metro section covering all matters “local.” This also covers state and local politics, crime, local persons or celebrities, business, obituaries, and the weather (mostly local, but also other cities in the state, nation, and the world.)
Should you really need a “business fix,” The Wall Street Journal is your go-to newspaper, of course. Some may only go for the Journal. For me, the WSJ is usually a headline browse.
Then there is the entertainment or style section featuring celebrities of television, movies, music, restaurant and food, shows, etc …. the fun stuff. Not as heady as the aforementioned sections, it is for the lover of lifestyle. This section will also often feature the daily horoscope, and let us not forget The Funnies (or comics). This may cover one or two pages and on Sundays is always its own section (and in color!). Some may pass the comics section over and some may read it religiously. Many of us at least grew up reading The Funnies: Family Circus, Beetle Bailey, Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, Peanuts, Blondie, Doonesbury, Mark Trail, Prince Valiant, Garfield, Dennis the Menace. The list goes on and on. It’s the “lighter side” of the paper, and recommended.
For this guy, the Sports section is the creme de la creme of the newspaper. The icing on the cake, if you will. From articles to action photographs, it’s the “must read.” Depending on the season of the year, of course, you will find articles on games, feature stories on athletes, tidbits on all sports goings-on around the country and world, league standings and records, team schedules, and statistics. There was a time, when I was commissioner of my fantasy football league, when the Monday morning stats had to be read in order to tally up scores for teams in the league. Now all of that is automated. I rarely look at stats and practically ignore them.
This could be one of a number of “morning routines” one has. If reading the newspaper is one of yours, it’s probably not happening in the afternoon, as those newspapers have all but dissolved.
Whether you read a hardcopy newspaper or derive the pleasure of reading it on a screen, it’s the same content. Divulge as you will.
It may be that over half the population of the United States does not even bother to read the news, preferring to catch it on television instead. Or not.
And that’s fine.
Whatever gets you through the morning.
