>>I think this is all a good thing. First of all, papers need so much advertising revenue that more than half their bulk is adverts now. So we pay to cut down MORE trees, to keep the papers in biz, so they can cut down even more. A vicious downward spiral Personally I can't wait for their demise. Like you say, who actually needs them (other than for, as Tamar says, the "feel" of a wad of crisp paper in the hands at the breakfast table or on the bus/train), with all the other media that are around today (which were not when a paper was essential). Take this "experience" away from a generation and what they've never had they won't miss.
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>Terry - read my reply to Jim for what I think is the real risk to society in this.
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>Tamar (who always recycles the newspaper)

Hi Tamar

Hmmmm, fair point. I'd always envisaged a downloaded page, just as it came off the DTP, or just as a web page arrives. We don't tailor our web pages to our liking before we download them. Certain bits could have hotlinks on them (e.g. "For full story turn to page 5"), which would save page-turning. Besides, surely the people who'd subscribe to a tele-paper would be those, like yourself, who cherish the broad spectrum of cols, opinions, editorials, whatever, and would therefore not want to pre-select.

Then again, do you actually ready every inch of your Sunday papers - the style mag, the TV mag, the sports supp., the fashion supp., the junk leaflest, the funnies, et al ad nauseum? These are the REAL culprits. Maybe you do, but I know plenty who just systematically discard the stuff that doesn't interest them. You probably flick through the wad of advert pages.

Recycle or no (admirable btw) there's only so many times that paper CAN be recycled (one can use recycled toilet paper - but I don't think it gets recovered a second time! :-)

Some years ago, in Boston, I regularly used to pass a newspaper vendor, under an overpass, flogging to passing commuters. Invariably at the end of the day there was a 4' high mountain of un-sold papers: all that trouble just to be returned for recycling.

Don't get me started on aluminium cans - all that heat and energy to wrest it from its ore and fashion into a can, so someone can have a drink then discard it (recycled or no).

Terry