Our speaker last Thursday was John Foreman who is the publisher of the News-Gazette.  John wrote a column in a recent Sunday paper about the “Big Black Dog” which was his family’s longtime companion.  If you can, check it out as it is very touching for those of us who love our pets.

John read a newspaper clipping from a newspaper in the mid19th century that described the demise of newspapers from the most modern communication device of the day—the telegraph!

Newspaper readership peaked in the 1950’s and has gradually declined since then.  Television and most recently the Internet have been distractions or alternatives to newspapers which have been led by several generations of youth along with the advertisers that seek them out.

The News-Gazette is now publishing all its articles on the Internet for a fee, and the free version has truncated news.  If you have followed their site, more advertisers have been attracted to it over the past two years. This plus the strength of its radio stations will keep our paper local and alive in the future.