Yes, Garland, people do read papers

December 02, 2011 at 9:36 am  | Mobile Reader | Print 

It’s not the sound of Santa coming to visit. It’s the laughter we put fourth after hearing a remark made by radio talk show host Garland Robinette Monday on WWL.

After someone on the program wondered if anyone read a certain item in the newspaper, Garland asked, with a smile in his rhetoric, does anyone read newspapers at all anymore?

Ho, ho, ho. Nothing could be funnier.

Newspapers still have much of the black and white circulations they have had in the past. And if you add their circulation on the internet, it is often more.

We suspect that among the most faithful readers of newspapers are news reporters for radio who want to find out what is going on from newspaper reporters who cover meetings and many types of events in person.

Compared with the humbug put out on many radio stations, newspapers are far more effective in informing the public.

After hearing one or two sentences about an important bit of news on radio, the announcer goes on to other matters of less importance and listeners forget about the important ones. And they have no way to re-hear them as they have the opportunity to re-read and save news items in the newspapers.

Radio’s advantage is that it can get the news out soon after it happens. And radio show hosts can interview people on the air and get a direct line of communication with the public. It does have its advantages. But then it disappears into the air and you can’t retrieve it.

Newspapers need time to prepare the written word and get it to the people but, after it is done, it is there permanently. And newspapers go into much more detail than radio can do during news programs on the air.

This writer listens to Robinette whenever he is in the car and the radio talk show host is on the air.

He has an entertaining and informative program, filled with his own opinions and those of the people he interviews.

But newspapers are still the primary source of news in great detail that is available to readers after they get it and whenever they want to pick it up again to review it. And it never goes away like the waves of sound from the radio.