I used to be a newspaper junkie and my late husband was a journalist. Recently, I have gotten away from almost all newspaper reading. News happens so quickly (and weather events) and the papers are a day behind. So now I get my news from early morning television and later, on-line. With recent political events, I find I am usually watching TV at least one hour per day, sometimes, even 2.

I've always loved newspapers and am sad to see them practically disappearing as they're read. My big city paper is read 7 days a week, my home town paper is mailed 6 days a week, a religious paper comes once a week, and I also receive a local free one plus my little AAA paper. When DH was here he used to get me the NY Times and the NY News every Sunday.

I gave up buying a newspaper years ago and now just take the free ones from the bundles which are left in my retirement Village Club Room. One has local news and two are for seniors.

I check news on websites and watch TV for local, interstate and world current affairs. My husband and I were journalists and once owned and contributed to a local paper. I spent most of my time getting the ads that paid to run it though!

I love the morning paper, although it isn't what it used to be. I enjoy the crossword puzzle, too, since I've retired and have found a website to look up what I don't know or have gotten wrong. I watch very little TV, some PBS programs and a very few others, preferring to read books. I have read the paper online a very few times when my delivery person missed me, but I don't like it.

We get the two local dailies where I work, and I often leaf through them during my lunch break. I have never been much of a newspaper reader, but I read the comics and the editorial cartoons and the occasional article.

I also check the local online media once or twice a day.

Kathy, an interesting topic as our family have the local daily newspaper delivery sewn-up. My son started as a 'paper boy', his sister had a late afternoon round of the local 'evening' paper and when they moved on DH, younger son and I took over. By this time three separate rounds had merged into just one and now we deliver only about fifteen papers per day rather than forty (?) . . . not a heavy load but spread in different directions. Even when the local weekly paper and the odd magazine/TV guide is added in it doesn't amount to much; but we still get paid ;-)

I should mention that ALL the papers have to be put through front-door letter boxes, no throwing them in the general direction of the house is tolerated!

I think in the UK, although reading papers has greatly declined, as a nation we still buy the London papers as only a few cities publish their own dailies.

Vee, the papers would never get delivered here if put through letter boxes and our boxes are at the front of the property too!

At around 2am, if I am awake, I hear a car being driven slowly along the road and a thud as the plastic wrapped paper hits the front lawns.

Annpan, no chance of us delivering papers at 2am! Nor do ours come pre-wrapped. A van from the local newsagent's shop drops a bundle off at the house between 6.30 and 7am. These are then sorted and away we go; not much fun at this time of year.

Kathy I realised I hadn't answered your question.

We have a daily paper also the weekly local paper and the 'Radio Times' which, despite its name gives all the up-coming TV progs on the ever increasing number of channels plus the BBC radio channels.

I almost never look at on-line broadcast or print news. I never watch the various morning news/current affairs shows on TV but have BBC radio 4 on in the kitchen until the numerous self-opinionated 'presenters' drive me mad with everyone trying to score points and speak over one another . . . at this point I activate the OFF switch.

I certainly couldn't follow Woodnymph/Mary's eg and watch up to two hours of political in-fighting.;-(

When I lived in VA I was a subscriber to the local paper. It was always wrapped in plastic and flung at the bottom of our driveways about 5 or 6 a.m. from a car. If one was handicapped or was ill, one could request the paper be delivered on one's front porch beside one's door. Otherwise, a trek down the driveway to the street.

When my late husband lived in PA, besides being a journalist, he was for a time the deliverer of the local paper in several small towns. This meant he was delivering in all weather in the wee hours of the morning. He actually claimed to enjoy it for a time. He had to often follow in the wake of the snow plows in winter.

Vee, I believe you are the only paper girl I know - certainly the only one who is anywhere near my age. That sounds like a fun little job, and a great family tradition.

Like you, Vee, I don't watch the morning TV shows, but do keep a very local news/current affairs radio station on. The radio is turned off promptly at 11:00, when the Rush Limbaugh theme music starts up.

I kind of long to be a newspaper reader, which I suppose is why I asked this question. Newspaper reading is a longstanding tradition in my family and among my in-laws. They always seem a bit amazed and sometimes even drop their eyes and slowly shake their bowed heads when I admit ignorance of a newspaper article they mention.

Shame, Kathy!

Yes that's right, Carolyn. You would fit in very well with my family.

That's a great story, Annpan - made me start my day with a smile.

Annpan, a female relative of DH, while her husband was away from home supposedly playing golf, sailing or fishing, popped into her small local shop to pick up the morning paper. She was greeted by the shopkeeper and much surprised when he told her "Your husband has cancelled the paper. We are so sorry that you two are splitting up and he is moving out of the area."

He did come back to tell her he would be moving many miles away (near golf courses and sea sailing) in two weeks at which time he upped and left, just taking the essentials with him . . . he has not returned and after some seven years she still sits in the too big family home and kept all his things 'ready' in case he returns. This is despite friends telling her to dump all his clothes 'take him to the cleaners' and offering help to find a good lawyer.

Well, that's one way to get your newspaper stopped! Poor lady!

We used to get our local "big city" (ha!) paper daily, but they sold out to a national chain of some sort and the paper shrunk by two-thirds and the quality of the reporting sank as well. We still get two (free) local town papers, but by the time they arrive the news is outdated. I get almost all my news online now. We have a hyper-focused town news website that is just terrific, and for national and international news I stick to NPR and the BBC, though I also glance through Google News, and do spend some time daily trying to separate fact from fiction on Facebook ;).

And comics! I have lots of favorite comics and several "agony aunt" columns bookmarked for morning reading with my coffee.

We have the paper delivered 7 days a week. Once upon a time it was always on the lawn by 5:30am, but now is sometimes not there by the time we leave for work at 7:15. I read it mainly for the opinion pieces and letters to the editor, and for the puzzle pages. In the winter I also read the sport for the Australian football coverage.

My DH gets the Wall Street Journal, and I skim the more interesting articles. When I buy the local paper I find I read very little of it. I get most of my news from public radio with a bit of internet to back it up.

I never was a thorough newspaper reader and am less so now. Actually I think this is a disturbing development. It is the investigative journalists that find out what is really going on, the hidden stuff people in power would like to gloss over. Most TV news is more infotainment that fact.

Not any more. Honestly, I like to read journalism and know that the opinion pieces are on the opinion/editorial pages. In my local paper, at least, it seems as if there is now free rein to offer personal opinions in all articles whether or not they are deemed as "editorials". Perhaps this is why the "daily" newspaper is now only published three times a week?

PAM