I’d be totally willing to pay money to the local paper to unlock further content, and I’m thinking this might be a viable way for them to make money without the cost of distributing all those dead trees. I’ve been planning to investigate if I can pay for digital content without having to actually get paper (yes, it’s an environmental concern. I’m a tedious granolahead.)

And it’s very easy to include clickable links (also hypertext links to other pages, and video, sound files, and other goodies) in PDF’s. You can make PDF’s that behave like websites. At work, we have started using Acrobat instead of Powerpoint for presentations. If you start with InDesign, it’s very easy to put together multimedia PDF’s. I guess the the little warning is a security feature- I’ve been meaning to figure out if you can turn it off.

I couldn’t determine from that link whether, after the free trial period expires, a digital-delivery subscriber still has access to both versions.

Of course, I’d prefer the ads be local, though the potential for worldwide distribution might complicate that some. Still, most of those interested in a given locality’s news should be local as well.

hate having them laying around the house when no one’s reading them.

That was the part that made me want to drop our dead-tree subscription the last time renewal came up. After prolonged intra-household negotiation, we’re still taking the paper, but they don’t hang around nearly as long as they used to.

The ink stains never bothered me so much, and the ad circulars do come in handy once in a while. But what I would really miss if newspapers disappeared entirely would be the chance to pick one up on vacation in some town far from home, and page through the chronicle of life in that place. The computer screen just doesn’t offer the immersion necessary for the full experience.

Maybe if I liked living here more, I’d still read the local paper sitting on the couch instead of at my computer desk.