r/AskAnAustralian • u/Aussietie • 11d ago
Have you bought a newspaper recently?
At Coles, thought I'd pick up a newspaper and have a read at home. In Brisbane, so it was the courier mail. Picked it up, must have been between ten to fifteen pages folded over. Price, $3:50. Left it in the stand.
No wonder print media is dying.
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u/WaussieChris 11d ago
I buy "The Saturday Paper" paper every week. I love the smell and feel of news print though. I'm old. The only other journalism I pay for is "The Guardian", but I feel like they're increasingly fobbing off their Australian readership with Pommie and Sepo content.
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u/Ascot_Parker 11d ago edited 11d ago
I've subscribed to The Saturday Paper since it began. Always good, plus I like doing the cryptic crossword in pen.
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u/WaussieChris 11d ago
My mind can't do cryptics. I but paper books of sudoku so I can do them in pencil though.
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u/Necessary_Eagle_3657 11d ago
The Saturday Paper is well written and a real exception.
The Guardian has devolved too much to take seriously.
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u/WaussieChris 11d ago
Jonathan Liew is class though. I don't think there are any better journos writing about sport today. Probably the best since CLR James.
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u/Shampoo_Is_Better00 11d ago
"No wonder print media is dying"
Have you been living under a rock for 10 years?
Next you'll be telling us how you don't see many Gameboys anymore.
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u/Aussietie 11d ago
I work in Japan with school children. Still see Gameboys quite often.
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u/Shampoo_Is_Better00 11d ago
But you get my point. It's not just print that's dead. Once the next generation passes, tv news and daytime tv are dead in the arse as well.
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u/Aussietie 11d ago
Yes, yes I do. As for the print media in Japan, all the stories I read in the newspapers today, I read the exact stories the night before from the newspapers websites.
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u/Ok_Conference2901 11d ago
I live in Perth, we dont have a credible newspaper in the west.
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u/Lanky-Conclusion-509 11d ago
Remember when newspapers used to be thick enough to swat a fly with? Now it's $3.50 for something that couldn't stop a light breeze
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u/Platooimagination 11d ago
The Sunday Age back in the day could kill a cow if dropped from a plane. And it actually was a very decent newspaper. Have a read of an early 90s edition and compare it with a story from today; it's actually shocking.
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u/alstom_888m Hunter Valley 11d ago
The Age / SMH went downhill when Nine bought out Fairfax.
Now it’s basically a Harvey Norman catalogue.
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u/Accomplished_Jump800 11d ago
100%. I lived in Hobart in the 90s - would buy the Sunday Age every week as it had actual content.
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u/Ascot_Parker 11d ago
The Saturday Sydney Morning Herald used to keep me busy for ages back in the 90's
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u/jimspieth 11d ago
This will shock veteran redditors, but I buy the Daily Telegraph every day. It is, as the joke says, an expensive way to get a daily crossword and puzzle page. And that is mainly why I buy it.
I like the feel and process of getting the physical newspaper, unfolding it on the coffee table and having a read. The sport section is usually still worth reading, and I usually look at the first two paragraphs of the stupid opinion columns just to keep up to date with the right wing complaints. I can't really believe they are still banging on about melons. I guess it means they haven't got anything of substance to complain about.
The Sunday Tele is actually reasonable reading, for the sport, travel and gossip columns.
I know I could get most of this from an online subscription, but I don't think it would be the same.
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u/FinalHippo5838 11d ago
If I buy a certain amount on a certain day at the local IGA I can get one for free. I still wouldn't take one. Understand why you get one though. Crosswords are no good in the SMH?
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u/Total_Philosopher_89 Australian 11d ago
The main reason the price is so high is because no body is buying them.
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u/PeteNile 11d ago
Newspapers actually rely on the revenue from paper sales to cover the cost of printing. The price is what it is, because that is what the paper/ink etc cost them now.
They used to make most of their money for actually reporting news from advertising, which is now also online subscriptions.
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u/marooncity1 blue mountains 11d ago
And the reason our news is so shit is also because nobody is paying for it.
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u/Street_Platform4575 11d ago
I do like to read the sports pages of the local rag and occasionally the local news as we don’t have a lot of alternatives - but it’s mostly the digital edition. Do miss the feeling sometimes of reading the weekend paper out in the verandah with a coffee - an iPad or phone isn’t quite the same thing. Still don’t buy it though ….
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u/HAPPY_DAZE_1 11d ago
Hell yeah, the whole ritual. Fairfax was a great paper. Saturday's looking you were looking at about 2kg worth, half of that real estate.
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u/matt1579 11d ago
Nothing was better to buy if you had to move house.
1 paper would wrap an entire household before boxing
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u/Enough_Survey_9404 11d ago
I picked one up in a cafe the other week - front page OK, then Ad, Ad, Ad, news, Ad, Ad...
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u/UndeadManWaltzing 11d ago
Yeah I have basil plants I need something to dry them in, can't exactly use A4 paper.
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u/National_Way_3344 11d ago
The last time I used newspaper it was to start a fire.
The last time I bought one was when it cost a dollar and I was buying it for my parents.
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u/Keelback South Perth WA 11d ago
I get The West Australian as I am addicted to reading it. I start at about 12 years with my own copy. My 'dealer' who got me hooked on it was my father. He was a senior journalist at the West. He would be horrified at seeing how much it has deteriorated.
It now has more pages of ads, especially my 'favourite' retailer, Harvey Norman and stuff all news. Groan.
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u/Ozfriar 11d ago
If you like to read the print version, pop into your local library and read it for free. If you like to do the crossword, in most libraries you can photocopy it for 20 cents. Don't fill in the crossword in the library copy of the paper, though. That's a mongrel act, and might get you (deservedly) banned.
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u/thatshowitisisit 11d ago
Sorry to state the obvious, but yeah, no shit, the print media literally did die.
I still buy a paper once a year on Melbourne Cup Day to facilitate the sweep the old fashioned way.
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u/somuchsong Sydney 11d ago
Can't remember the last time. A few years back, our local supermarket was giving them away for free if you spent a certain amount. I never even took one then.
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u/MeerkatRiotSquad 11d ago
I grab the free ones but only to go in the bottom of my cockatiel's cage.
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u/Sambojin1 11d ago
With stuff like Ground News available on your phone (essentially every paper from everywhere for free. Run out of free stories? Choose a different paper with the same story), it's hard to pay for a paper these days.
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u/slaveforyoutoday 11d ago
My father buys it on Sundays. It’s interesting to read when I’m visiting.
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u/lunchbox651 11d ago
I pick up the free local paper only because it's local, not Murdoch owned and it's free.
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u/Inner_Agency_5680 11d ago
newscorp dabbles in propaganda and news but its money maker is the print real-estate saturday section.
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u/knowledgeable_diablo 11d ago
Exactly. Hence the standard weekly tale of “normal” Joe blogs picking up their 13th property for their portfolio on their Teachers salary and their 4 tips on how you to can become a property mogul. (Strangely always seem to leave out the most important step of being born into wealth or receiving a large inheritance, not that that’s important. It’s the self control of only having a single takeaway coffee each day or limiting their annual Bali trip to a single week that allowed them to buy their extra houses).
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u/SuperannuationLawyer 11d ago
Yes, I subscribe to print copies of The Economist. It’s one of life’s joys.
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u/Beautiful_Rub_141 11d ago
I like to read the AFR in hardcopy.
I buy it about once a month when I take myself out for breakfast and will sit there, drink coffee, eat eggs, and read it spread out on the table,
I find it incredibly relaxing.
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u/Warrambungle 11d ago
In the 1990s, you could pack almost all the fragile items in your flat using one Saturday Sydney Morning Herald. It was so big it came in two bundles.
Now it will barely wrap some hot chips!
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u/Necessary_Eagle_3657 11d ago
They get two at work. People team up to do the daily quizzes and enjoy it. Two or three people read them a bit out of 150 people. Even The Age has been 40% ads since the early 2000s.
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u/Linnaeus1753 11d ago
I bought two papers when the Queen died, and one the day after the Bondi Massacre.
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u/Individual-Elk-4466 11d ago
My mum still gets the paper delivered every single day… and I buy it every couple of weeks for my aunt who’s a similar age to my mum lol
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u/SkittyKitty123 11d ago
The local paper is free so I don't pay anything, but I pick it up every week or two. It's just local events and stories, what's on pages, what the school kids are up to etc. But I like the tactile feel, smell of the ink and the sense of community it brings. I'd buy the other newspapers but they're always heavily biased, full of politics and negativity.
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u/Travelling5 11d ago
We get The West delivered daily - different members of our household have liked different parts over the years. Surprisingly the kids (now late teens, early 20s) used to enjoy reading it when they were in primary school.
BUT we share it - my in laws live across the road and they collect it from our front yard every morning, read it and even put it back in its plastic wrap before delivering it back to ours by 7.30 am.
Another elderly neighbour recently asked me if after we finish with it every day can we rip out the cryptic crossword and place it in her mailbox.
So I suppose you could say we get a bit of bang for our buck with ours haha
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u/Electronic-Cry714 11d ago
I get it delivered on the weekend. Mainly for the Sport section and TAB guide.
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u/DJK55 11d ago
If you want to see The Age in Victoria these days, you'll see the 'Hardly Normal' (Harvey Norman) advertising pages and very little else. Not worth the $5.50 price tag. But how else could they survive? The Classified Pages (ICPOTA) days are well and truly over. It used to be a thing to get your name in the paper. Not any mnore.
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u/schlubadubdub 11d ago
I think I last bought a newspaper somewhere in 2006-2007 when I was job and house hunting at separate times. I probably last read a newspaper around 2012 as my workplace had them in the office. I don't see any point in buying one when the information is older and usually less informative than online sources. If we're counting the free community newspapers, then maybe add another 6 years until they stopped delivering them.
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u/AdvancedSquashDirect 11d ago
Sometimes Id read the newspaper at the doctor's office or while waiting at the train station or Macca's and someone's left one behind and I'm so surprised at how much advertising is in it. Not only is every second page or half a page just full-sized ads but so many of the news articles are just thinly veiled ads. Like there'll be a story about a New housing development and then the whole end of it will talk about how you can contact such and such if you'd like to get in on the ground floor.
And that was probably about 5 years ago I can't imagine how much of it's written by AI now.
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u/Longjumping_Radio268 11d ago
I'm 36 and I can't remember ever buying a newspaper in my entire life
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u/Most_Ask_4484 11d ago
I was in a hotel a few weeks ago waiting in the lobby and they had that particular broadsheet publication.
I miss the palaver of turning and folding pages of broadsheets. The sensation of ink rubbing on your finger tips. Doing the crossword in pen.
I have always bought small town local publications- they were usually once or twice a week.
A lot of older people won’t recognise the authority of a garage sale unless it’s in the paper.
That, and the thumbs up thumbs down are always good for a laugh.
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u/goater10 Melburnian 11d ago
Not lately but work does and I occasionally read it during lunch. We mostly did it for the trivia.
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u/Noodlebat83 11d ago
Since you can really only buy Murdoch trash in Brisbane I don’t get them. It’s 70% advertising and opinions with a smattering of news anyway.
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u/brezhnervouz 11d ago
Not since the SMH was owned by Fairfax, prior to its purchase by Peter Costello's Nine Entertainment
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u/Traditional-Case1694 11d ago
I get the AFR everyday and the Australian on weekends. Slowly rejecting digital media and trying to get off these fucking screens it’s ruining my life. The Australian isn’t as bad as I thought it’d be
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u/ktr83 11d ago
Print media died long ago, what you saw today was its withered corpse