A Lasting–Or Last?–Role for Newspapers

Media reports say that there was a run on the nation’s newspapers Wednesday, as citizens bought up all available copies of the editions proclaiming Barack Obama’s historic electoral victory.

I’m embarrassed to say it didn’t even occur to me to save the paper. Worse, I used that copy of the paper to line our birdcage.

I do not mean that metaphorically. I am not trying to be cute. I do not say it to demean the newspaper or Barack Obama. We have an African Gray parrot named Koko, and I use the daily newspaper to line his cage. I didn’t think of setting Wednesday’s aside.

You can guess where I’m going with this.

I have become so digitally inclined that I pay little attention to the printed paper that is dropped at the end of the driveway every morning. In fact, we get it only because as Sunday-only subscribers, we received an offer from the Washington Post, my former employer, to throw in weekdays free–a sad attempt to boost circulation figures that I was willing to condone by accepting it.

Oh, I care deeply about the news itself, and the journalism the Post and other great newspapers produce. I’m following the Obama transition with the same nutty hyperfocus I applied to the campaign. But by the time I pick up the paper in the morning–Koko riding on my shoulder when I venture out to get it–the news is crusty, like the slice of pizza left out on the counter overnight.

Tomorrow’s profile of Rahm Emanuel? Already read a couple–one on the Washington Post site–plus two opinion pieces and the back story on how it happened. Don’t need any more. I’m onto the next thing.

And so I’m wondering whether with the Obama election, newspapers have unwittingly demonstrated what might be their most lasting value–as a tangible artifact that documents major national events. That’s not a bad role, being a keepsake. It’s just one that doesn’t need to be fulfilled more than once or twice a decade.

With today’s news streaming around us all the time, and tomorrow’s paper delivering yesterday’s, the question is: What should a printed newspaper do on all the other days? And what should people do with it?

I have Koko’s cage to attend to. What others do with their papers, I leave to them.