Sharleen Jonsson

On Tuesday, two mornings before its month-long, complimentary weekly delivery campaign was due to end, the Globe and Mail called to ask if I’d be willing to upgrade my current Friday-Saturday subscription to the full week. I was torn. On Wednesday, Steve Jobs introduced the iPad. Today, Thursday, I wonder if one day—sooner than later—this iPad will be the solution to my angst.

Okay, lukewarm angst. I don’t (yet) feel especially guilty for receiving my weekend paper in hard copy. I like holding that newspaper in my hands. Yes, it’s the product of dead trees. But does it really matter, if I recycle? My more environmentally-aware friends will tell me yes, I’m sure. But I don’t feel bad about my “paper paper.” I really don’t.

Let’s leave aside, for a moment, the issue of dead trees. Let’s talk about dead newspapers. I care about newspapers. While I think blogs are great (obviously, or I wouldn’t have started my own), they’re not newspapers. “Citizen journalism” may be journalism—no doubt undergrads in communications programs still debate this—but 99 percent of the time, they’re just opinions with links to news organizations. It’s organizations like the Globe that can do in-depth series on the emergence of China or the issues of mental health.

But, my tree-hugging friends say, you can support the newspapers you like by paying for their digital content. True. The Globe doesn’t charge for this yet but who knows how long this will last? The New York Times is now demanding money for its digital version.

Speaking of dead or dying things, consider the age of the majority of hard copy news readers. According to an article I recently read (in the kind of magazine with pages you have to turn) it’s people of my generation—I’m a boomer—and older who are the major consumers of print newspapers. The generations below us are happier getting their news online. Once we’re gone—in fact, likely long before we’re gone—paper papers will be old news, so to speak.

I’m not dead yet, and I’m not going to stop getting that bundle of newsprint delivered to my front door anytime soon. But earlier today, when the Globe called back for my final decision, I declined the Monday-Thursday addition to my subscription. I didn’t have time to read half the pages in them and throwing that unread half into the recycling bin just felt plain wrong.

And I have to admit that this morning, as I was reading all about the iPad in my last free issue of a Thursday Globe, I kept imagining what it would be like to be reading the same content on an electronic device…it might work…it’s possible I could learn to like it better…iEvolve?