I Read a Newspaper Today…and I Liked It. Isn’t That Weird?

The regular morning routine for me and probably millions of others includes grabbing my phone and engaging in the strenuous physical effort of using my thumbs to scroll through whatever digital content pops up on my social media feeds.

These mainly consist of posts from followers or people I follow which come with their own commentary about whatever news item they decide to post. It can also be content from the various news organizations I follow on social media, designed to satisfy an algorithm, audience engagement data and ultimately unique visits. It has become more than a habit. It is something I’m programmed to do almost as a pavlovian response.

But this morning, the first Sunday of 2025, I woke up with no such desire. What I wanted was a more organic feel to my consumption of national and international chaos coverage. I’m what’s considered a news junkie. If it’s journalism about the shortage of cavendish bananas or the fight over electing an ineffective, weak House Speaker for this session of Congress, I’m here for it.

I was given the bug for keeping up on current events by my high school civics teacher, Mr. Duffin who had a gift for making the most absurd things funny. My Honors English teacher, Mrs. Brown taught me to love literature of all types. My algebra and geometry teacher, Mr. Fridge showed me how to organize complex concepts so that I could explain them to others. My creative writing teacher, Sister Pat, taught me how to journal and thus tell stories over time. Finally, my high school newspaper teacher, Mr. Hyska, introduced me to the power I could wield by pulling all these things together to make them work for the common good.

So after more than 25 years in the craft of journalism, it’s natural that I have a desire to get my daily news fix. But at least 15 of those years have been spent in online news, so I’ve helped build what is now an infrastructure for news consumption over computers, smartphones and tablets at some of the most well known brands in the news business.

Nerves Gone Bad

Most people get their news these days by seeing what’s in their social media feeds, myself included. Some do subscribe to specific websites and pay whatever the fee is for their paywall, while others will go to a news aggregation website to see a collection of stories they can click on at will. I normally do a combination of it all, which eventually leads to a bunch of scrolling through Instagram, LinkedIn and BlueSky (TikTok and Twitter just ain’t happening, baby). This morning however, I became tired of it all. I simply wanted the feeling I once had of opening the newspaper and feeling the newsprint, putting on my glasses and perusing the headlines.

There was something that seemed triggering about using my phone, something that in earlier iterations was only used to communicate with other people, to ingest billions of sequential zeroes and ones into my brain at a time. Someone 20 years younger than me probably only had that experience when it comes to media if it weren’t television. Even radio has lost much of its luster when it comes to news delivery to certain demographics. With me though, I just desired the feel of reading a newspaper in the same way I'd want a home cooked meal every once in a while.

So off I went into the cold morning, walking around northern Bedford-Stuyvesant. My mission unbeknownst to those who passed by. Years before, it would have been easily expected to find thick copies of The New York Times, the New York Daily News, or The New York Post, filled with Sunday extras, weekly magazines and circulars. But my trek led me from one store to the next. Each store cashier giving me the same answer to my question. “¿Se tiene algún periódicos?”

“No, no tenemos ninguno aquí,” they would tell me. So I’d keep going, the wind picking up and the streets filling with more people headed to the J train. Finally, I came across one store that seemed a little bigger than the others. The gentleman went behind the counter and brought out a copy of the Daily News. Odd, I thought. Once upon a time, a copy would have been sitting in front of the cash register, now he has to go find it.

Mission accomplished. I made my way back to my girlfriend’s apartment and sat the copy on her table. The first noticeable thing was that it was much, much thinner than I remember Sunday papers being. When I was a kid, my parents subscribed to the Detroit Free Press and it was as thick as War and Peace. It came not only with the news of the day, but with a Sunday features section, Parade magazine, the full-color funny pages, advertisement inserts from several retailers, and page after page of coupons, which my mother waited on each week.

The Freep, as we call it in journalism circles, was an experience designed to occupy a reader for much of the day. The person felt complete, informed and walked away with things they could use. But it’s been years since I moved to New York and in that time, the news business has been feverishly fighting for survival in all its forms. Hit by thousands of layoffs at newspapers, websites, television and radio networks. They’re all left wondering what will happen. Managers are wrenching their hands at what to do and many in the C-suites running them feel a need to kiss the ring of the incoming president – something William Randolph Hearst would have scoffed at.

Digesting the Digest

This copy of the Daily News was an anemic rendition of what it used to be. The front page featured a story about congestion pricing, something that will likely make life in this city harder than it already is. The first pages were filled with bullet-driven carnage, always a stage tragedy featuring Gotham’s youth, who never survive to its denouement. On another page was a column by a friend of mine about an HBCU performing at the presidential inauguration and him pushing back against their critics.

Several pages in, there were editorials, mostly about the News’ support of congestion pricing (still a dumb idea). Because of the News’ suffering extreme staff cuts, there was lots, and lots, and lots of copy from the Associated Press. After a few pages, analysis of the Knicks’ loss to the Bulls, and one thing everyone in the Five Boroughs agrees on: the Jets should have dropped Aaron Rodgers months ago.

The crossword puzzles and other games reminded me of the days my mother would do them before cutting out coupons while sipping tea. It was all a nostalgic experience that reminded me of the comforts I once enjoyed.

Although this newspaper wasn’t what it had been, it still felt comforting to read it. I did have the feeling of simply settling in and taking my time with words at my own pace. There were no popups, flickering ads or pages that were taking too long to load. No unwanted emails because of cookies, no spiders crawling my browser. There were certainly no bloviating podcasters or phony news sites injecting misinformation and flat out lies into my eyeballs to make right wing politicians feel good about themselves.

It was just me on a quiet morning reading the paper. Gathering information, feeling like I came away with something. Feeling like the News’ editors were doing something for me, rather than me working for its website’s algorithm. I felt like a human being using a product meant for human beings.

Right now, of course, you’re reading this posting on your computer, phone or tablet. There is no print version of this website. But after reading what I’ve written here, I’d encourage you to go and look for a copy of your local newspaper. Step away from the digital dungeon and feel good for a little while. You don’t owe any website or social media platform anything.

For just a little while, I got to step away from that thing that we seem to have given permission to control our thinking and our lives. It was a treat that I forgot I could give myself. I liked it. I think I want to do it again.

Madison Gray is a New York City-based writer and editor whose work has appeared in multiple publications globally. Reach out to him at madison@starkravingmadison.com.