I have to admit, I am a newspaper junkie. If eyes are a window to the soul, then a daily newspaper is a window to the soul of a nation. Whenever I am on holiday I will seek out the local newspaper and devour it like a big bad wolf devouring a chicken nugget. If it is written in English, so much the better, otherwise I will look at the pictures and try to guess what the story might be about from the slightest of clues.
My love of newspapers is not based on the physical properties of paper and ink. Whilst I will admit that there is a decent argument for choosing fine leather-bound books rather than their digital, electronic cousins, it would be a perverse fellow who was drawn to the arm-arching broadsheet or the ink-dripping tabloid. So you might think that I would be a fan of electronic news sites or tablet versions of existing newspapers. This, however, is not the case. There is something about the layout of the traditional newspaper - the jumble of words and images, the multitude of columns - which is not replicated in on-line news sites.
And so after experimenting with everything from Kindle newspapers to news aggregators, from iPad editions to Google Reader, I have returned to my first love, the service provided by PressDisplay.com. Be warned, subscriptions are not cheap, but fixes seldom are for us addicts. Press Display gives its' subscribers unlimited access to something like 2,000 newspapers worldwide. You can read a different newspaper every day for the rest of your life (well almost), travel the world without leaving your armchair, catch up with events in Mumbai, are scan the obituaries in Dayton, Ohio.
I could go on about the advantages of PressDisplay, but it will begin to sound like an advert, and, whatever you might think, I am not being paid by them to write this. The purpose of this post is merely to point out the service to any other addicts there might be out there, and to give a Yorkshireman's nod of approval to the company providing the product. The other point of this post is to share with you something I was reading in the Mumbai edition of the Indian newspaper, Daily News and Analysis (DNA), this morning. Did you know that 7 people will killed by leopards in India last year? Now, that is interesting, isn't it?
Like a good Monty Python skit, I find myself waiting for the next tidbit. I can almost hear John Cleese saying "No they weren't," and seeing Michael Palin in a Leopard suit looking embarrassed.
ReplyDeleteThe Other Half disappears every morning to his computer where he reads newspapers from Aus, UK and Switzerland.
ReplyDeleteWonder if the leopard deaths were in the same town, same leopards, random places?
ReplyDeleteThis is an awesome article. I just checked out PressDisplay and they do have a lot to offer, the subscription could be worth it too. Thanks for this great information.
ReplyDeleteI can see the attraction, Alan, but the subscription is a bit 'steep' for me. I tend to catch up with most of my newspaper reading by sending the lengthier online articles to my Kindle via the Firefox extension, Push-to-Kindle.
ReplyDeleteI'm also a big fan of newspapers. I don't get enough time to spend on newspapers . I tend to use my local library for newspapers.
ReplyDeleteI like good news..so I don't read the newspapers much. My husband reads everything newsy online:)
ReplyDeleteI like the odd little stories tucked away in the inner pages of local papers - reports of the meetings of obscure societies, right down to who played the piano, etc., although I have to admit I usually stick to the Saturday Guardian.
ReplyDeleteWow, fascinating post! Although, I'm getting a bit scared of losing real live hold in your hand (pages you can clip, cut and paste) being history. It's like how do we treasure a post off facebook, like an old post card? I was doing some research for Sepia Saturday, (ha ha ha you know that lovely blog right?!!!) and one of my fave things is do read (on line but it once was in hard copy) and still is at the history center- old newspapers- and you are so spot on about how we see into a nation- the people- I learned about a gang called the Boo Gang- they were really wild west kind of city shooters, all around bad guys, how so many lost all their money to the game faro! It's so amazing what we can read in newspapers, especially those from way before our time! Yes, obtaining sources of info is so important- in what ever way you can!!!
ReplyDeletehere's a cool link, and it covers more than Minnesota, you search a great many places!
ReplyDeletehttp://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/search/pages/results/?state=Minnesota&date1=1836&date2=1922&proxtext=old+frontenac&dateFilterType=yearRange&rows=20&searchType=basic&x=21&y=21
Have you discovered 'Flipboard' yet Alan? It's a free app for your iPad. I told John about it and he immediateley 'lost' a couple of hours immersed in the articles and found he couldn't stop! Also download 'pocket' which used to be called 'Read it Later', also free.
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