Chronicles of a Paper Stack

For the last year or more, my weekend mornings can be summarized as follows: coffee, brewed or bought; pastries, scones, bagels, or cinnamon rolls; quiet music; and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Local newspapers, the print version, are in many ways a relic of a more patient, possibly less environmentally-friendly world, depending on one's perspective on the amount of energy required for the Internet. I'm not sure what the comparative carbon-footprints are. Nevertheless, there is something satisfying about getting all the way through an actual paper. Especially when you have to consider the value you are getting from your subscription.

When I first subscribed, I had a deal as good as drinking fine scotch in a wooded cabin on a rainy night, about $20 for 13 weeks of Wednesday through Sunday service. 13 weeks ago, the price went up to $40. I was fine with that, I could definitely afford it, and I felt good about paying to support a local daily newspaper, even though I could read the paper every day at work, and even though on many weekends, I have not been home and have been buying extra copies.

Yesterday, I got the bill for the next 13 months--which had already been charged to my credit card; you get the bill after the fact--and found the rate is now $80.

This is where I find myself wrestling with a conundrum.

The newspaper is the local daily newspaper. It is also run by a corporation. I'm not naturally inclined to trust corporations to have more than a fiduciary investment in a community, but I want to thwart the trend of newspapers dying across the country.

The corporation, while publicly fretting about having to shut down all together, has forced major concessions on the part of the union employees--union-busting, anyone? On the one hand, I would like to keep those workers employed and the newspaper in existence. On the other hand, should I support a corporation under the current paradigm of commercial journalism?

Of late, the Chronicle has made many, presumably costly, changes. These changes range from the substantive (new comics, a new round-up of headlines from newspapers around the world) to the cosmetic (the sports section being printed on green paper once again on Sundays, and an expensive new printing process to improve the visual quality) to the supposedly-substantive-but-merely-cosmetic (a new solipsistic column by a former mayor who clearly doesn't lack for self-enthusiasm). Are these changes increasing the value I get for my money? Is this the right question I should even be asking when it comes to a source of news? Is that part of the problem in and of itself? A newspaper is a profit-driven endeavor.

When you factor in the extra charge built into subscriptions to cover delivery costs, subscribing costs me more than would buying the papers daily, Wednesday-Sunday, which is a bit irritating when you consider that a subscription gives a paper a guaranteed income, upfront. Still, I can probably afford this. The question is, do I want to? When I have access to the daily paper at work, and could just buy the paper on the weekend for my ritual, is subscribing to the paper at this price worth it?

I'm not sure yet.