Why the printed word matters.
UPDATE: As if cued, here is the article covering our country’s current newspaper obsession from, of course, Gawker.
I don’t think I’ve gone a couple days without some article popping up in my reader trumpeting the inevitable doom that awaits the printed word (I’m looking at you, Gawker.) For the most part, they’re all pretty spot-on. Newspapers and magazines are becoming more and more outdated by time-of-print and comparably unwieldy when all that information can be viewed so much more conveniently on our computers or pocket robots of choice. We all know this.
However, today was a meteoric example of why the printed word, specifically the newspaper, still matters. A newspaper is a physical artifact or record of the given day. Normally, that doesn’t mean all that much. Sometimes, it means quite a bit.
This morning, on my way into the ‘fire, I checked in at least 20 or so newsstands, bodegas, markets and even a Barnes & Noble in an attempt to buy a copy of The New York Times. Last night was perhaps one of the most significant moments in history that I will live through and, .com-newsery-be-damned, I wanted a physical memento of the event. From my failure at obtaining one and the images you see here, a representation of everywhere I went, I was clearly not alone.
November 8th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Hey, there are rumors going around that original New York Times with the Obama headline are going for as much as $400 on Ebay, which it turns out is not true, see http://tinyurl.com/5l3afd. At Buy It Now prices they are about fifty bucks, which still ain’t bad. I’m digging thru my newspaper pile right now!