Even if I restrict myself to online resources, I typically go to established news sources such as the online version of newspapers and TV networks. If I want to see who’s jabbering or pontificating then I try to read the blogs.

Somebody has to take the time and effort to gather, edit and distribute the news and this has a cost. I would much rather read an article from a trained journalist than a blogger with with information gleaned from some source and colored with his or her opinion.

Obviously, newspapers are not dead yet. (Remeber the Monty Python skit? I’m not dead yet?) That said, many really are in their dying throes. Will it spell the absolute end of print? Probably, but the death throes will take a decade, I think.

Consider: In my mid- to late-twenties in Toronto, I used to read 3-5 daily Toronto newspapers and a few American weekend editions, plus several weekly investment rags. (Plus loads of books.) I paid for and read ALL of them. Pretty much every section. And when I had time, I’d go to the Toronto Reference Library and read the New York Times as well.

Now, I don’t even crack open a newspaper, even though I really want to read the weekend editions. Heck, I barely glance at the cover. And that’s the case though I love to read.

So if a die-hard reader doesn’t read newspapers anymore, what about other readers? My mother owns a one of the last three convenience stores-cum-diners left in Canada. Her newspaper supply has been shrinking steadily over the past 26 years. Some weekends, she might sell 10 copies instead of the expected 30-60. It’s that bad.

You could have attacked my position from any numbers of angles (saying something is dead when it obviously isn’t yet opens you up to a whole lot of such attacks) but this one simply doesn’t carry water.