Wisconsin Newspapers: What Are You Reading?

[dgridley]

How does your local Wisconsin newspaper stack up? Good to great news coverage? Awesome featurettes? Or is it part of the national trend of a dying industry?

Do you subscribe to your local paper at home or read it online? How much does it cost for a suscription?

[CindyLouWho]

Originally Posted by dgridley

How does your local Wisconsin newspaper stack up? Good to great news coverage? Awesome featurettes? Or is it part of the national trend of a dying industry?

Do you subscribe to your local paper at home or read it online? How much does it cost for a suscription?

The only newspaper we get weekly is our local paper. We pay $35 a year and it's delivered via the mail every Thursday. However, it has much to be desired in the way of actual news. It reports on the local news and some of the state things but rarely anything national. It also has what we call "gossip" columns where a person in each township reports who went to whose house for dinner or took a trip to Madison. They also print two or three pages of the minutes from the town board meetings and the sheriffs auctions on foreclosures of properties. Half of the paper is usually committed to covering the sporting events at the two high schools and the college.

It has gotten better the last few years though after another paper bought them out. Now they report on the court proceedings and accidents which the former owner never did. He only reported on "good" things because he didn't want to show our community in a bad light. I think maybe he was afraid his name would show up in the court reports or something. LOL

[dgridley]

Our local paper rarely goes beyond 6 pages and costs 75 cents (!) a copy.. mostly local display ads and very little news or even classifieds. I don't know how they manage to hold on. We used to subscribe when I first moved to the area but stopped after a month or two. I rarely even buy a copy now and read it online. The newspaper from the nearest large twon is much bigger and contains news from the surrounding communities so it's a better "bargain" and I do buy that at times.

[pk]

I have been reading the Milwaukee paper more lately than our Kenosha News. It's a better newspaper I think.

[dgridley]

I think one of the major problems newspapers have these days is competing with all the free news on the internet.. other than local classifieds, there's scarcely a reason to subscribe to a print newspaper these days.. agree?

[pk]

Have to admit that I've been really slacking lately in picking up an actual newspaper. I just check on the Internet and be done with it. I do however enjoy reading a newspaper but the cost just doesn't justify it when I can get it free on the net.

[dgridley]

And what doesn't make sense is when I weigh the value of my local newspaper (4-6pgs at 75 cents) against the free local shopper (two large sections), my local paper isn't even good for local classifieds.. Like you, I'd rather read the news online for free.

[dgridley]

We do get a free complimentary copy of our local newspaper delivered to our door on Wednesday (ad insert day)..