You really get no argument from me. Right now I am typing away on a blog, but my Union-Tribune (yes, I subscribe) is piled up next to me.

I think you will agree, however, that it is no longer a “news” paper as much as it is casual entertainment. I hit the headlines (which are not news at all by the time it hits my driveway), and I love the crossword. It is People Magazine with Britney.

The point is that, rather than burying their head in the sand where new technology is concerned, they should be embracing it and adaptiing. Where local issues are concerned, you have a point. (Although, Steve may want to challenge you about fault on the Sunroad height limit issue, suggesting you might want to take it up with the City and the Port District, who appear not to communicate so well with each other). Where real estate is concerned, it simply doesn’t hit the mark any longer except for the Open Homes listings. That, too, will eventually migrate online once someone comes up with a truly comprehensive list.

On the last subject, I have often wondered how long it will be before the MLS’s add an Open House field to the MLS input. Once that occurs, the field gets swept by Realtor.com, Trulia, etc. and presto – That section, too, will be relatively worthless.

Bottom line – The paper will not go bust, but it will go bust as we know it. Without ad revenue, there would be no paper. Our little subscriptions, as we all well know, do not pay the cost of publication. Continuing to drive the advertisers away is not the best business strategy I have seen this week.

One thing that DOES concern me about decreasing subscription levels is that the newpaper provides a very useful service to the community: investigative reporting of local politicians. If the paper goes bust, what blogger has the resources to bust the next Abramhoff and get national attention? Who is going to look into why a developer got away with a building project that goes against the FAA restrictions? This is really important stuff for the community and the UT is the only one with the resources to do a solid investigation of bad politicians. Without UT, future Abramhoffs are going to get away with their scandals and laugh all the way to the bank.

And I want to keep my Sunday morning paper!!!!

But not to worry for newspaper owners/executives. I’ve heard they are investing in the vinyl record business.

ARW (Lani) – I LOVE that word. May I use it? Maybe even Wiki it?

Jay – Fluffy (who looks like she was prepped for military duty and, therefore, is “not”) was named by our children. My youngest, when queried by a friend as to why she didn’t name the cat “Tiger”, responded, “I thought about it, but I didn’t want to give her such a common name”. As for her personality, Steve will suggest that you and we may be sharing custody of the same cat.

And now, I will come clean. We still subscribe to the “news” paper, but I consider it more like my People magazine – Mindless and portable. Plus, I really enjoy the New York Times crossword puzzle.

“Do YOU subscribe?” I asked.

“No, I get my news online”, he said.

Yeah, me too. I felt bad for the guy. It was like 700 degrees outside and he hadn’t sold a single subscription. I gave him a bottle of water, mostly out of sympathy, partly because I didn’t want him falling out with heat stroke on my front porch.

We recently had the Arizona Republic be more stupid than usual (and that is quite the feat, trust me) when they ran an article, supposedly on local real estate bloggers. Somehow they managed to include more bloggers from out of state and out of the continent than local bloggers.

They just don’t get it. I seriously doubt they ever will.

Locally, the Austin American Statesman (which IMO is no more than ultra liberal tripe anyhow) has a declining readership and should be reaching out to cultivate the potentially synergistic relationship with RE bloggers. Guess how many people on my street have the newspaper delivered to their door? ZERO. Seriously. By the time “news” makes it to readers’ doors in the smudgy print format, it has already oversaturated the blogosphere.

(Sidenote: many specialized publications such as Austin Business Journal have embraced the blogging medium and have always been friendly to Realtors. Our friends there have worked with us to uncover news and we have all benefited! Sounds like SDUT could take a page from the ABJ!)

I always laugh at the agents trying to find their ads in the Saturday papers. Emphasis on “trying to find”. Dude, you know the ad is in there, and still you can’t find it…

What hope does a buyer have of finding it?

-Athol