Many Chicago-area residents walked outside their homes Tuesday morning, bracing to glimpse any damage to their property caused by the severe storm the night before.
As they surveyed the scene, some folks undoubtedly grew confused at the empty space on their doorstep or driveway. A few may have started poking around the bushes, lawn and even under the welcome mat, until the newsflash registered inside their heads: Their Sun-Times, Tribune and other print products were missing.
Nothing was hot off the presses Tuesday. No daily newspapers were printed and delivered. News from the Sun-Times, and other media organizations that still put together a physical paper, could only be consumed electronically because of weather-related production issues at our vendor, which prints its namesake Chicago Tribune, the Sun-Times, the Daily Herald, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and other publications.
"This is the first time the newsroom can remember the newspaper not being printed and delivered on the intended day," Sun-Times Executive Editor Jennifer Kho wrote to readers, apologizing — online— for the inconvenience.
While many longtime subscribers who enjoy holding a broadsheet or tabloid were probably perplexed and dismayed by the news, the changing nature of news consumption means that a large segment of the Sun-Times audience (and that of other newspapers) probably didn't even notice or care. They just logged on to the Sun-Times website or browsed the e-paper to stay on top of current events here and elsewhere, just as they do any other day.
There was no newshole in this newspaper town, whose healthy media landscape includes many other reputable television, radio and online outlets — and two daily papers, when most cities have just one.
It is hardly a scoop that the print news industry has spent the last few years adapting to rapidly shifting technology and focusing on digital demand to keep up with customers' preferences. Who needs a screaming newspaper hawker when you can get an alert at your fingertips? Most adults in the country — 86% — often or sometimes get their news from a smartphone, computer or tablet, and half get news at least sometimes from social media, according to recent Pew Research Center research.
Hitting closer to home, a survey conducted earlier this year by Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications found that 62% of Chicago-area residents said they use their smartphones to get local news all the time or often, and 52% watch news on television all the time or often.
A paltry 13% of respondents said they read traditional newspapers and magazines often or all the time.
The writing is on the wall. Print newspapers are dying off.
But not so fast. Hold the presses They aren't dead yet. Many publishers may be cutting back on print, but they aren't completely abandoning it, as American Press Institute noted this week.
We know, based on our experience in this business, that there are times when even people who don't read the newspaper (or just use it to line a bird cage or litter box) are scrambling to get their hands on one they can store for safekeeping.
During monumental history-making events connected to Chicago — Barack Obama being elected as our country's first Black president and the Sox and Cubs winning the World Series come to mind — relatives and friends beg us for copies of the newspaper. When a loved one dies or is featured in the Sun-Times, families often buy extra newspapers so they can cut the obituary or story out for their scrapbooks or frame it.
Print copies of a newspaper memorialize events in a tangible way that screenshots simply can't replicate.
On Wednesday, many subscribers received their Tuesday newspaper a day late, as issues continued at our vendor’s printing facility this week. Our dedicated print readers perhaps sat at their breakfast or even dinner table to read all about it.
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