What I Have Always Loved…

I love newspapers:

• The smell of them
• The feel of the crisp paper in my hands
• The black ink that sometimes comes off on my fingertips 

I love the routine of them – some thrown strategically onto my driveway – some coming tucked into my mail box.
And I love the ability to randomly rip out articles that grab my attention.
 
And that love of the printed newspaper is actually how my column got started.
 
When my youngest and fifth son entered preschool, I knew I needed something to serve my interest in promoting connection and my need to challenge myself creatively.
 
In the mid 1980’s a mutual acquaintance and I started a monthly parenting newspaper/magazine in Cincinnati, Ohio, aptly named Cincinnati Kids.
 

 
My column appeared on the last page of the 16-page monthly. And, as expected, my articles focused on parenting, parenting failures, parenting dilemmas and parenting advice.
 
Here’s a tidbit from August, 1988: 
The three most practical things a parent can do for his child to make him feel loved and cherished are the following:

• Physical touch
• Positive eye contact
• Focused attention

 
(BTW: works on grandkids and husbands too)
 
The only one of us that made any money was our sales rep. 
 
However, every month when we picked up the huge number of bundled papers from the printer, our psychic income was in the black. Delivering the freebie to neighborhood drop-off points in a euphoric state of happiness still felt like “work,” but my accountant confidently assured me that based on my feeble income from Cincinnati Kids, my “work” was a “hobby.”
 
Eventually, our small little publication was absorbed into a larger local weekly newspaper East Side Weekend where my column and a local priest’s column often ran side by side, aptly titled “The Priest and the Pastor.”
 



 
Soon after, my column was picked up by a larger chain of weeklies and by various monthly parenting magazines across the country.
 
As we entered the Internet age, my “Incidentally, Iris” column began appearing on many websites and online publications. My greatest gig was with The Huffington Post – the older adult section – where I was named a “must read columnist.” Sadly, they abolished that section soon after. It certainly wasn’t for lack of an aging population.
Oh well.

Here’s the link: https://www.huffpost.com/author/irisruthpastor-725
 
My love of writing, reading and newspapers continues. 
 
However, I am increasingly in a minority.
 
Newspaper subscription rates have been tumbling down for years.
 
Television in the 1950’s ushered in the first decline of the newspaper as the main source of news. And the Internet explosion in the 1990’s brutally sabotaged newspaper’s dominance even more. 
 
Why has newspaper circulation declined? Technology and social media platforms have changed the way people consume and access news. And there is an unstoppable move from print to digital.  
 
Even though some stats show that 54 percent of readers like print copies over digital, circulation belies this.
 
In 1990, the average circulation of weekday newspapers was 63.2 million. In 2022, the circulation was down to 20.9 million and it is still declining!!!

To make matters worse, 2100 local newspapers have closed since 2004, affecting 1800 communities. And the number of journalists has dropped 39 percent since 1989.
 
And why the rapid tumbling down? Because we can all get real time information on our computers and phones.
 
But I still love newspapers and believe in their worth.
Next week I’ll profile some tantalizing tidbits of info garnered from their pages. 
 
Until then,
 
Keep Preserving Your Bloom,