Newspapers Never Die, They Just Fade Away
by John Delach
I start my day almost every morning by opening the garage door as the clock approaches 7 am to retrieve our copies of The New York Times and Newsday both delivered by the same person and both wrapped in a protective plastic bag regardless of the weather. I am fully conscience of how few of our neighbors still receive printed morning newspapers.
It was slightly over a month ago on February First when the (Newark) Star-Leger permanently ended its printed edition and forced other publications like the Jersey Journal to go digital by stopping its presses.
Fortunately, and a bit unbelievably, we readers on Long Island still have access to five daily printed newspapers, The Times, Newsday, The Wall Street Journal, The Daily News and The New York Post.
Unfortunately, it won’t stay that way, the clock is ticking. When I was active, The Times meant more to me than any other newspaper. Today, almost twenty-five-years later, (my 25th Anniversary is April 4th,) my paper of record is Newsday. Not often, but there are days when I don’t get to The Times. Damn, it is just a shadow of what it was twenty-five years ago. The Sports Section is a joke and they actually outsourced the content to a new subsidiary they bought called the Athlete.
The daily Metropolitan Section is a memory and too much of its content has disappeared or is dedicated to Politically Correct- BS points of view.
Why continue subscribing? Because I’m too old to let it go and, every once in a while, they publish a feature that hits me like a lead weight. This actually happened last month. On Sunday, Feb. 16th, the weekly Metropolitan Section led off with a piece about Michael Hirsh, a good man trying to restore Most Holy Trinity Cemetery in Brooklyn.
OMG, this piece opened long unused file drawers in my brain about my mother, Aunt Mildred and their relationship with my Uncle Pete who is buried there and our visits to his grave. ( My piece will follow later in March.)
There it is. I can’t quit The Times so long as it remains in print, and so it goes.
John Delach 
My Comment. I miss the newspapers that were. Their content had substance, purpose which in no way has been replaced by television. For the record, we get the Dallas Morning News five days a week (Tuesday through Sunday) and that has become a sad shell of its former self and the Wall Street Journal six days a week (no Sunday edition.) And among our three children only Tom gets a paper, the Dallas Morning News. How sad. But you’re right, and so it goes. Bill