If you want your newspaper delivered, you're officially old.

[Baitball Blogger]

I was walking by a stand where someone was trying to hock newspaper subscriptions. I was surprised to overhear that the paper was moving to a strictly online news source. The saleswoman explained that they only had newspaper subscriptions because the old people like their paper delivered.

First, I had no idea that was the plan, but it would explain why their subscription rate keeps climbing. I think they're trying to wean us old people off the paper.

[Solly Mack]

1. Guess I'm old then.

Oh, well.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. We've been getting our paper delivered for many, many years, and we like it that way!

We have our morning coffee and read the paper.

YES, we're old!

[The Blue Flower]

3. Yes, and...?

I also like to read actual books.

[justhanginon]

28. I had a Kindle and gave it away. Not near as satisfying as reading an actual book and

harder on the eyes even though I had the paper white one. I do read the news on the interrnet but would prefer a local paper edition. I find that when I am reading on the internet I do not seem to concentrate as well and rush through the articles more.
Unfortunately the Pulitzer owned St. Louis Post Dispatch which was a great paper was sold to some corporation that published "surburban journal" type papers and promptly got rid of all the good columnists and opinion writers and is no longer worth reading for the very few that are left.

[ProudLib72]

4. A few times in the last couple of years, I've needed newspaper

for packing or masking off before spray painting. I don't have a paper subscription, so I went next door to ask my neighbors. None of them had paper subscriptions. I ended up finding some of those free advertisement papers for cars or houses or whatever and taking a bunch.

It struck me as really strange not to have newspapers on hand. I grew up with newspapers everywhere. It was taken for granted that everyone on the block had newspapers. It's nice that we are cutting back on paper consumption, but it still feels strange.

[Baitball Blogger]

7. They mentioned something about coupons.

I hope it doesn't become an ad paper with some random news articles.

[unblock]

5. meanwhile someone keeps littering my driveway with a "free" newspaper i don't want.

i'm getting to the age where i see unnecessarily bending over to pick things up as having a definite "cost".

[subterranean]

36. I used to get a free local newspaper, too.

I called up the paper and asked them to stop delivering it to my house, and they did.

[csziggy]

38. The local newspaper has a free rag that they throw out to every driveway

We have not gotten the local newspaper for decades - they tried to rip me off when I was a carrier, they tried to rip my husband off when he was one, and when my husband got a job as a circulation manager he had to lie to the people to hire them as carriers.

Aside from all of that there really does not seem worth it to have a paper delivered when I'd have to drive from my house to my driveway to pick it up every morning.

So when this thing started arriving unasked in my driveway - each one carefully placed in plastic bags increasing the garbage ratio - I called up and asked that they stop. I made a number of calls which they ignored. This was during the period before I had my knees replaced so climbing in and out of my truck to pick up unwanted garbage was not only annoying, it was painful and unsafe for me. I left them there, hoping that would be a signal to the carrier to stop leaving the undesired packages.

In the end, I threatened to report them for littering as the number of their free crap left in the driveway increased. I also told them there were at least a dozen in my drive and if they were not gone in a week I WOULD report them for littering. The things were gone in two days and have never appeared since.

[Kaleva]

6. On line, IMO, is more earth friendly.

[DFW]

8. Let 'em wean away

There isn't a household in our neighborhood, young or old, that does NOT get a daily newspaper delivered.

My daughters don't and for all their online awareness, the one in New York has no clue what the name of the Governor of any neighboring state is (or probably the name of her own Governor or Senators or Representative in the House), and the one in Frankfurt, who now jets all over the world for her job, probably couldn't tell you the name of the head of any country in Europe outside of Germany, England or France.

[Baitball Blogger]

11. I live in Florida, and I'm not sure it is a profitable venture here.

And, yes, I do think that might be the disconnect with kids not knowing much about current affairs.

[Permanut]

9. I delivered papers in 1957..

on my Schwinn bicycle. Oregon Journal, every day after school, Saturdays and the big Sunday edition. I could roll 'em too, and hit a porch from 20 feet while riding by. Broke one window in two years. Monthly subscription including Sundays was $1.95, and I had to go around and collect the money once a month.

[GulfCoast66]

23. I must be 20+ years younger and was in Arkansas.

But I did the same except it was a morning paper. Age 12-14 on my Schwinn and then on a moter scooter and finally a car. Threw papers till I graduated HS and I think that experience is more responsible for my success than anything else. Collecting bills taught me to deal with difficult people at a young age. And I learned that great service meant better tips. $4.50 a month when I started. $7.50 when I stopped. And boy did the customers bitch when the price went up. Like a 16 year old boy could do anything about it!

Thanks for bringing back the memories.

[justhanginon]

31. I well remember the satisfying "thunk" when you heard the paper

hit the yard about the same time every day. Sometimes sneaking out to get it early and hope to hell no one was looking out their window. Kind of reminds me of a skit on "Everyone Loves Raymond" with his father getting in trouble with the neighbors complaining about him getting the paper in his undies.

[Jim Beard]

24. I sold Grit at that time for 15 cents. They advertised to us carriers that Grit

got 10 cents and we got a HUGE in print nickle.

[ProfessorGAC]

48. I Did It More Like 69 and 70

Me and my cousin had a large route, but it was a cushy gig.

We lived about 4 blocks from a huge apartment complex. We'd bike over there and just walk through the hallways laying down papers in front the apartment doors.

So, we're inside, didn't have to wrap the papers when it rained or snowed, and when we went to collect, we stayed warm and dry for the most part.

That's likely a lot easier than what most kids had to do.

[Hoyt]

10. Quite old here. I get it digitally and physically. I can read what I want much faster

with the paper version. I probably could live with digital, and likely will when I retire.

[madokie]

12. 4 AM on every day except Sunday and it's at 5

been having the paper delivered pretty much my whole adult life.

[guillaumeb]

13. We have 3 papers delivered, and numerous magazines.

Are we fossils?

[Stallion]

14. If You Are Really Old You Remember When The Milkman Used to Deliver

nm

[left-of-center2012]

16. San Diego in the late 1970s

My ex and I lived in North Park, San Diego and our neighbors had milk delivered.
The milk was left at their doorstep in small galvanized metal boxes.

[WinkyDink]

17. Yep! And the bread man, the farm-fresh egg man, and the potato chip man.

[rzemanfl]

19. The Juice Man, the Cleaners, the Fulller Brush man and the Realsilk man.

Then, of course, there is Winky Dink.

[WinkyDink]

35. Mais oui, mon ami! And did I mention the Encyclopaedia Britannica

salesman, from whom my parents in 1960 bought my still-treasured set, complete with yearbooks of the decade?

Indeed, it was the included 2-volume dictionary that engendered my lifelong interest in etymology, ancient civilizations, and even plate tectonics, as there was a 5-language chart of common words in the index.

[rzemanfl]

46. We had an old World Book acquired from someplace, sans yearbooks. n/t

[Kaleva]

18. I drove to a nearby farm to get fresh milk.

That's when I was old enough to drive. Before that, I went with my mother.

[LeftInTX]

22. We had milk delivery in WI - 1970s

Doesn't make sense in Texas or when residents won't be home all day. The stuff would spoil in the heat on most days.

My husband says we still have milk delivery in our San Antonio neighborhood. My hunch is it is delivered to elderly who can't get to the store.

[Jim Beard]

25. Remember it well. Guess the Pizza man has taken his place.

[justhanginon]

32. Yep. Early forties, Quality Dairy and in the summer we used to beg for a piece

of that crystal clear ice they used to keep it cold on the truck. I also remember the bright red scissor sharpener truck with its clanging bell coming by and people coming out with their knives and scissors for sharpening.

[Skittles]

39. in England, I remember milk brought via Clydesdale

[ProfessorGAC]

49. As My Dad Was A Milkman, Yes!

He didn't deliver door to door, though. He drove a semi to the supermarkets. But, a couple guys he worked with brought milk to our house, and because he worked there, my parents didn't have to pay for delivery. So, it was actually a couple cents a gallon cheaper than buying at the store.

[left-of-center2012]

15. The Albuquerque Journal is a right wing rag

Over the past 10 years the price has gone from 25¢ for the daily to now $1.50 and
the paper has shrunk in size.

Most of the news I know the night before via the TV and internet.

[Adrahil]

20. Digital only, please. It's an easy way to to limit demand for wood pulp. NT

[Rorey]

21. Our local paper is Republican leaning

I had a subscription for a long time so I could keep up with events and activities and obituaries. Then we got a delivery person who apparently liked their beauty sleep a bit too much. It was irritating, and I decided I didn't need that irritation so I just cancelled it. It was hard to live without it for the first week or two, but I got used to not having it.

Recently my neighbor had to go out of town and didn't want to suspend her paper so she asked me to pick it up for her and said she didn't mind if I read them. But I didn't care to do so.

So I guess I was old, but now I'm not.

[lapucelle]

27. Heck,

I'd still like to have my milk delivered. I guess that makes me really old.

[Rorey]

40. I enjoyed having my milk delivered

Once again, I guess I'm just too persnickety about my deliveries. In the summertime I always put a small cooler out for the delivery guy to put my dairy delivery in, and he'd never close the lid of the cooler all the way. I'm kind of a nut about food safety, so it really bothered me. I decided I'd suspend delivery for the summer one year and then never started it back up again. We don't drink that much milk anyway, so it didn't impact my life too much.

[Jim Beard]

26. I have been hearing about some places refusing to take cash. They can shove it.

I got in trouble writing checks and doing it by cash helped me get straightened out. I still use checks for bills. I don't even have online banking and do not want it. I am 70 and like it the way it has always been.

Never saw people in a Craps game happily waving plastic. Green is best.

[Iggo]

30. Cash is king, babe.

[Iggo]

29. Everyone wants their news delivered.

Some want it delivered the old fashioned way: a rolled up stack of paper tossed onto their driveway.

Some want it delivered via a series of tubes.

Nobody actually wants to go out and get their news, though.

[Laffy Kat]

33. You have to have you Sunday NYTs delivered.

They will have to pry my paper Sunday Times from my cold dead hands.

[Baitball Blogger]

34. I don't see how they can do away with the Sunday paper.

My mom use to pat it and say, "juicy." She loved looking over the sales ads.

[Laffy Kat]

37. There is just something about turning those pages between sips of coffee.

I take it to work with me and am allowed to read papers and books but not electronic devices. Sundays I work from 6:15 a.m. to 4:30 pm and it is a sloooooow day. I'd die w/o my Times and huge cup of coffee. I'm very methodical about it and have to read sections in a certain order.

[planetc]

45. Yes, an orderly reading of the Times is necessary.

First I check to see where the obits are. If not in sec. B, I'm done with B. If in B, scan obits. If not in B, read in A or wherever they occur.

Then to the front page and pages 2 and 3. The sketch artist is delightful, the quote of the day sometimes interesting, and I'm hooked on the tiny crossword.

Then on through sec. A to the letters to the editors, which correct the news stories and generally restore my faith in humanity.

Next, look at the pictures in the special section (Food, Science, etc.). Sometimes read a science story.

Go to Arts section, scan pics, cut out crossword to do later. Start dinner.

[Laffy Kat]

50. My fave is the Book Review section.

That's like dessert and spend the longest time on it.

[planetc]

54. Well, now you're talking th Sunday paper, which is sorted differently, but

did you catch Bill Clinton's review of the new U.S. Grant bio? I thought it was masterly in how much it said about our current troubles, without naming a single name. And he talked about the book, too, which Times reviewers don't always do.

[kimbutgar]

41. Im 61 and officially old now

The paper costs more to be delivered but I can’t give up my paper copy.

[Initech]

42. Newspapers are still a thing? Who knew?

[ashling]

43. Why, yes,I do

Thank you for the compliment.

[cwydro]

44. Nah. Not old.

Some of us are able to read, and we don’t need a device for that.

“A room without books is a body without a soul”. Cicero

Yep.

[Tracer]

47. I may be old now, but

I've had a newspaper delivered since I was young!

Gotta have my coffee and paper in the morning. Reading it online just isn't the same.

[rickford66]

51. Get out the old Winky Dink to do the puzzles.

What about litter boxes, bird cages and wood stoves? What about those without WI Fi? Get an extra long Ethernet cable to reach the bathroom ? Ya. I just had my 71st.

[Freethinker65]

52. Switched to Sunday only delivery a few years back, cancelled even that this year.

I miss the local coverage, local entertainment section, reviews, etc. National and International News was practically useless anyway. I thought I would miss the sale ads and coupons, but now I just buy less crap (I look at ads online and most groceries here have digital/paperless manufacturer coupons to use if I want) and am happy with my choice.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

53. I'm in my 30s and I still like getting my paper physically delivered.

Reading the paper in its original and intended form is a bit of an art form for me that can't be duplicated online.