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UnLocal Paper

A different day, a different newspaper
  (+25, -3)(+25, -3)(+25, -3)
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We go through periods of taking the newspaper (delivered to our front porch in the too-goddamn-early morning), and then growing weary of it and then canceling the service.

Then we decide we miss it and start over again.

We read the front page, the back page, and the comics routinely. We read other portions as catches our interest, or not.

I think the routine gets old, and we lose interest. But being addicts of the printed word, it's hard to do without and we repeat the cycle.

I'd like to receive a different newspaper from a different city every day. I think that the variety (Cow killed on Hwy. 37?) and nonstop learning curve (where do they keep their horoscope?) would keep it interesting, and we could quit yanking the poor delivery person to and fro.

normzone, Aug 10 2007

something akin to my thinking jornal_20di_e1rio_2...eri_f3dico_20diario
[po, Aug 10 2007]

[link]






       I work in a newspaper and I can say that this would be a bitch for the circulation department to keep up with. I'm not sure about other papers but we only offer single day deliveries for Sundays and Wednesdays, you can't get Thursday only for instance. But that doesn't mean this isn't a cool idea.   

       Not sure it's an invention though.
Noexit, Aug 10 2007
  

       + I think it's a cool idea. I stopped getting our local newspaper because they did away with the police log and it was the very best in entertainment.
xandram, Aug 10 2007
  

       I think the category makes it work. Yes, it would be hell to administer.   

       "Let's see, he's scheduled to get the Perth paper today, and he got the London paper yesterday..."   

       You'd want some good software. Oh hell, everybody would have to get the same paper on the same day, it would be too costly otherwise. Or maybe that could be the premium subscription option.
normzone, Aug 10 2007
  

       Interesting... I think the solution could be Internet based: build up a database of online local papers, and have your computer randomly download one and print it out for you automatically every morning. Everyone pays a subscription to the entire database, and each local paper gets a few pennies from every paper downloaded.
lostdog, Aug 10 2007
  

       Damn, that about makes it work. Although I'm going to have to buy a new printer that does thirty-inch square sheets on both sides.
normzone, Aug 10 2007
  

       Probably wouldn't be THAT difficult. The papers could just swap data before printing so Paper A's presses were printing Paper B's editions for that day.   

       The problem I see is that all the ads would be for businesses in other towns, or if for national businesses they might have the wrong prices or items.
Galbinus_Caeli, Aug 10 2007
  

       The whole issue of ad-based revenue gets ignored here just for that reason.
normzone, Aug 10 2007
  

       But ad based revenue is the vast majority of newspaper revenue. Your subscription fee barely covers the cost of the actual delivery guy.
Galbinus_Caeli, Aug 10 2007
  

       No problem - just make sure all the ads in all the local papers share various different common formats, and the computer simply serves up the appropriate local ads on-the-fly in the ad-spaces provided in the unlocal paper's template.
lostdog, Aug 10 2007
  

       Wow. This is actually bakeable with all of your input. That's scary.
normzone, Aug 10 2007
  

       // and have your computer randomly download one //   

       Accessibility issue: Not all newspaper readers have a computer in their dwelling.   

       Regardless, have a pastry.
ed, Aug 10 2007
  

       Yeah, I like the thump of the paper disturbing my sleep, the agonizing decision whether it's early enough that the neighbors are all still abed and I can reach out unclothed and grab it, or is it so far out on the porch and so late that I need a bathrobe, splitting the paper into several parts to share.   

       This definitely needs to be printed and delivered, not home accessed.
normzone, Aug 10 2007
  

       No problem - just equip your local paperboy with a hugely cumbersome laser printer duct-taped to the back of his bike, complete with a wireless connection back to his ultra-modern newsagent base...
lostdog, Aug 10 2007
  

       That bike would have to be supported by a tractor-trailer carrying all the paper.
normzone, Aug 10 2007
  

       Leave at least some of Faraway City's ads in the paper. That would be as entertaining as some of the stories. Plus we keep getting told that it's a "global marketplace", but I don't know what's sold anywhere except at my corner market.   

       Maybe it could be delivered in the early-morning of the timezone of origin - so you might get the "thump" any time of day or night, and try to guess what paper you'd got while you're running to see.
lurch, Aug 11 2007
  

       William Gibson might blink for a moment at this.
normzone, Aug 11 2007
  

       If the paper is from a remote place, it probably doesn't matter if it's a few days old.   

       Just have a facility whereby unsold papers are collected, shuffled, and redistributed as a pile of "random papers". Then, you just deliver a "pot-luck paper" to subscribers.
MaxwellBuchanan, Aug 11 2007
  

       I would like to be able to pick a dozen or two cities that interest me.
drememynd, Aug 12 2007
  

       Oh hell, in a few years Rupert Murdock will own and consolidate all of the interesting ones anyways, and then we'll have the Chicago - London - New York - Amsterdam - Montreal - Philadelphia - Tampa - Dublin - Sydney - Boston - Dallas - Kansas City - Los Angeles Enquirer anyhow. The only stories will be Paris Hilton's latest forray into the world of high fashion, Tony Blair's efforts in Palestine, and the invasion of the 600 foot baby.
RayfordSteele, Aug 12 2007
  

       What about language? If my paper today is from a different country that is non-english speaking, would it still be in english since I live in the USA?   

       I don't want a paper if i can't read it...   

       Anyway, here's my bun.
wolstech, Aug 13 2007
  

       Surely all you need to do is set up a website or Facebook group where everyone who joins pledges to send a local newspaper to one other randomly selected member. So everyone sends and receives one paper per week.
mecotterill, May 11 2008
  

       If the paper is from far enough away that the news is entertainment rather than information, the distribution problem could be made easier by delivering a mixed bag on one day (ie on Monday each house on the street gets a different paper) and thereafter the newspapers are passed along the street for the next day. It would save on paper, too.
dbmag9, Jun 12 2008
  

       That would certainly make for getting to know your neighbors.   

       "It looks as though Mary likes her coffee black".
normzone, Aug 22 2008
  

       If you don't mind pre-read newspapers with the possibility of the Suduko already being partially (and wrongly) completed, international airlines are a good source of non-local papers. Arrange a collection service from your nearest Int'l Airport and you're good to go.
AusCan531, Oct 03 2012
  

       In my city, until a few years ago, the headline would say: "Four Wounded in Car Crash" and a large picture of the mayor. And that was it. There was no more news.
pashute, Oct 04 2012
  
      
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