Post Standard to Reduce Publucation Days

[clarencebunsen]

Syracuse Post-Standard to publish 3 days a week

HARRISBURG, Pa. —

The Syracuse Post-Standard and a sister paper in Harrisburg, Pa., are switching to a three-days-a-week publication schedule in January.

John Kirkpatrick, publisher of The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, says the change will be accompanied by an expansion of around-the-clock news coverage online. The paper will continue to publish on Sundays, while the other two days have not been determined.

At the Post-Standard of Syracuse, editor and publisher Stephen Rogers told employees that newspapers’ economic model has become unviable. The Post-Standard will publish on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

www.uticaod.com/latestnews/x218318279/Syracuse-Post-Standard-to-publish-3-days-a-week

[Clipper]

I can see that on the horizon for the OD also. The last couple of times I have been in town the printed OD has had little of great interest in it and was quite thin for the price you now pay.

Of course if they go to a 3 day span for publishing they will have to devote an entire multipage section to local crime news and the police blotter. They also will have to decide whether the local political news belongs in the section with the obituary's or the comics.

I imagine that the printed page's demise is not far off. In my estimation it will be a sad day. I have read from a kindle that a friend loaned me in order for me to read a short novel he had downloaded, and I was not the least bit enthused. I will hold on to my old school desire to hold a printed page in hand and to walk to the road in the morning to retrieve my paper which I anxiously peruse over my first cup of coffee in the morning.

The same goes for books. I don't see myself doing my daily reading on an electronic device until it becomes the only source available. I will hang on to my bound volumes, printed pages and colorful dust jackets until they are pried from my hesitant hands or they close the lid on my casket. I love the computer and enjoy all the different news sources I read on here on a regular basis, but I still have a deep rooted love for the printed page, the smell of the newspaper ink or the musty smell of an old book from the library.

Two things that I hold sacred and will hold onto until the absolute end are my guns and my books.

[dave]

I don't think I've ever seen it used, so I had to look up "unviable" to confirm it's really a word. It is. Kudos to the OD for using "unviable" for the first time in a publication since 1894.


My local newspaper offers the option of getting the paper delivered either 7 or 4 days per week. Many of us don't want all those papers and supplements piling up each week and can follow most important stories with only 4 issues each week.

I have a kindle and use it, but most of the time I prefer a hard book. I buy digital publications if they're really cheap or if I don't care about keeping the book around. There is also a lot of free stuff one can download and many, many novelettes, etc. for one or two dollars. I brought my kindle and a free download of a first novel with me while my wife was having dental surgery a couple of weeks ago. It's really convenient to slip into a front pocket, though a bit large. It's very readable and easy on the eyes. A couple of flicks and the font size can be enlarged or reduced. You can also search text with it.

I think digital book sales are poised to take off as soon as their prices come down. I don't like paying 9.95 for digital when I can get the hard copy for 14.99. That's not enough price differential. That said, Amazon now sells the majority of it's books in digital form. Think about that. It's amazing.

They also lose money on books. Their real business is everything else. That's kind of a shame, to lose money on books while at the same time putting so many book stores out of business. I wonder why Amazon hasn't been hit with a law suit for predatory pricing.

[Clipper]

I have actually ordered only a very small number of books from Amazon. I use their website to look for a book by title, I read the sample pages and excerpts from the book offered on Amazon, and then I call my favorite used book store and see if they have it in inventory. I love Mr. K's used book stores.

mrksusedbooks.com/#!prettyPhoto

I have used the Johnson City store for several years, but on my way to Atlanta a year of so ago I visited their Knoxville store. We have several used book stores in our area, but Mr. K's is the most well organized and well stocked of all of them. Border's or Barnes and Noble have nothing on Mr. K's when it comes to having their inventory organized, and controlled. They can tell you in seconds if they have a book in stock. That sort of organization and inventory control is very unusual for any used book store I have ever patronized. They can send you to a particular stack or aisle and tell you approximately where on those shelves to look for it. You can usually go to that aisle, and within a few seconds locate the book you are looking for. If Mr K's were to close their doors I would probably go buy a Kindle or a similar device out of sheer panic. LOL

It will be a sad day in my estimation when I find myself laying in bed with an electronic device lighting up the room, rather than a hard cover book propped on my chest, and a book mark on the bedside stand. Call me old fashioned.

I have enough trouble keeping my electric shaver and my cell phone charged without having to charge up my reading material also, LOL.

[Clipper]

I have always had a deep reverence for a good book. Even as a child, toys and other possessions were oft broken or discarded but my books were always treated with a special level of care. To this day I take extra care to protect and preserve a good book. When I read I always wash my hands first to eliminate oil or dirt from my hands. I then carefully remove the dust jacket and set it aside. I never lay an open book face down and always use a book mark. When I am through reading I carefully place the dust jacket back on the book until the next time I read. When we go out the door I always have the following things. My truck keys, my cell phone, my wallet, AND MY BOOK. While a Kindle or similar device might be more convenient, it would not hold the same pleasure and satisfaction for me personally as feeling the heft and turning the pages of a hard bound volume. A preacher carries his bible, a coach carries a clip board, and I carry my latest choice in novels. Here are a few quotes about books that I have saved from different websites over a period of time.

This paperback is very interesting, but I find it will never replace a hardcover book - it makes a very poor doorstop.
Alfred Hitchcock
British movie director (1899 - 1980)

Nothing can do what a book can do. Lifts you out of your life... to a whole new world, whole new perspective. A book is like a dream you're borrowing from a friend.
Dave Kellett, Sheldon, 08-15-2011

I think it is good that books still exist, but they do make me sleepy.
Frank Zappa (1940 - 1993)

[Deleted]

Aug 29, 2012 22:37:14 GMT -5 Clipper said:

It will be a sad day in my estimation when I find myself laying in bed with an electronic device lighting up the room,

I found mine at SexDolls a great site. ;D

[Clipper]

Hmmm. I guess I need to further qualify the statement about electronic devices lighting up the room. The devices I referred to simply were back lit screens. No humming, vibrating, vacuum producing, vinyl inflatables. ROFL! Always the smart ass Alan. hahaha! I should have known that you would have a humorous reply or comment and anticipated a quick and witty return posting.

[Deleted]

We did have a used book store in Utica a few years back but that closed. Only book store now in Barns and Noble. I have never been in there because I have no way of getting there--not on Bus route.

I do wish we had a comic book store.

Utica Public Library is a bad place to go and read because it is far to noisey. The staff and guard are to afraid to tell, what some people call people., and the children that parents drop off for day care becaue they can't afford real day care, to please be quiet

The bad thing about the Utica OD is that it is all yesterdays news ever since they send the paper out to be printed. The Sundays paper is like reading Fridays and Saturdays and the Mondays paper is like reading the Sundays paper. I would buy it for 10 cents but no for the price they want.

[Deleted]

Clipper you would love to see the Psalter that the Monks at Our Lady of the Genesee use for prayer. The books were all handmade in the traditions of the early Cistercian ideals. Gethsemini Abbey just finished the printing of the entire Psalter they use which is all hand set and actually tied or sown together to make the volumn's. Marvelous work.

[dave]

Just a point of possible interest. My kindle is not light emitting. You can't read it in the dark; you need a lamp. That's what makes it so easy on the eyes. In fact, with the printing quality of books decreasing lately ... or so I've noted ... the print contrast on a Kindle is better than most books.
Still, in most circumstances, I'd rather have a book. If I was on the road a lot, BOTH would be best. I could read a book at home and when I travel, bring the electronic version with me.

[Clipper]

Thanks for the information Dave. I have never checked into the latest gadgets. The reader that I was loaned by a friend was like a flat tablet with a backlit screen so I guess it was not a Kindle.

There is a used book store between Clinton and Deansboro called Berry Hill Book Store. It is in a barn and I have heard that it is a place that an avid book lover could spend days simply browsing through all the books.

Every time we come to the area I have planned to get out there but have yet to get there. That is not on the bus route either Alan, but if I were to go there I would be more than glad to have you ride along. Probably won't be up there again now until next year about this time or a little earlier.