It’s certainly not front page news that less and less people read daily newspapers, and that, of those that do, more and more read their paper(s) of choice online. Nonetheless, it is, at the least, somewhat surprising that there has been virtually no reaction from the media at large to the Boston Globe’s recent 150% increase in the cost of its daily paper to $.75.
This virtual silence is made even more surprising given what we, the reader, have gotten in return. Just a few examples:
· A paper that is, physically, barely 2/3rds its previous size (don’t believe it – next time you
pass a green Globe vendor box, check out how little of the display area the paper takes up;
· The (with whatever little due respect can be found) insidious “Sidekick” section, which,
frankly, appears to serve no use beyond lining of litter boxes (assuming you have a cat);
· Increasingly smaller newsprint, which will certainly force many 50 year olds, and possibly
some 15 year olds, to don reading glasses.
Even all this might be acceptable were it not for the Globe’s virtual abandonment of journalistic principals. Always liberal, the paper, at least until recently, made some attempt at journalistic objectivity. No more.
And yet, perhaps we might be able to accept even that, were it not for the Globe’s downward spiral into the inane. A case in point – the Monday, 4-7-08 story concerning the increasing number of parents who (we’re not making his up) “…turn to etiquette pros to counter…” their children’s lack of manners. A story to which any thinking human being’s reaction should first be ‘Are you kidding?!’, followed quickly by ‘WHO CARES?!’ The Globe, however, deemed the story of such importance, that they placed it on the paper’s front page. One can only wonder what the powers that be at the Globe will present us when they decide it time to raise the price of their daily paper to $1.00.
