Believe it or not but, until a few weeks ago, our household was still getting a newspaper delivered every morning. What’s a newspaper you ask? Well kids, it’s how everyone got their news in the olden days before social media or online news sites. Late last year, we made the bold move and switched to a digital newspaper subscription.

If you’re still getting printed newspapers or magazines, read on for 10 reasons you need to switch to digital. If not, you might still enjoy my nostalgic tale of the (g)olden days of newspaper delivery.

This post was originally published in January 2021 and updated in December 2023.

Whatever happened to the paper boy?

Personally, I’ve been getting my news online for years now. My husband, on the other hand, still enjoyed his newspaper. We’ve had a subscription to our local newspaper since we got married over 25 years ago. That’s long enough for us to remember the days when a young paper boy (or girl) would deliver the newspaper right to our door. It was a great first job for many in our generation.

In recent years, the harsh reality of unemployment hit those young newspaper carriers when the newspapers outsourced delivery to bigger operations. For a while, we enjoyed the same service we had been used to. One day, the delivery people discovered a way to deliver even more newspapers—and make more money. Instead of delivering the newspaper to your mailbox, or even your doorstep, they could put it in a plastic bag and throw it at your house from a moving vehicle.

Now, it would be an understatement to say the aim of these delivery people was questionable. Let’s just say they will not be candidates for the Cy Young Award. On very rare occasions, the paper made it all the way to the front porch. More often than not, it landed halfway up the driveway. In the winter, that often meant it ended up buried in snow.

That was the final straw for the eco crusader in me. Newspapers in plastic bags? No thank you! I would have cancelled the subscription right away but, did I mention my husband really likes his newspaper?

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Making the move to a digital newspaper subscription

Last summer, my husband bought a tablet. That was the first step in cancelling our printed newspaper subscription, although my daily complaining about the plastic bags may have factored into the decision.

Here are 10 benefits of making the switch:

• Saving money! The digital subscription costs $10 a month. The print subscription was $30. That’s $240 a year back in our pockets.
• We no longer need to wander out to the driveway in our pyjamas to rescue the newspaper on dark, cold, winter mornings.
• The digital subscription may give access to more news if the newspaper is affiliated with a national newspaper chain. And, the news is delivered in real-time. I always found that the morning paper contained “old news” I had seen online the previous day.
• No delivery issues.
• Environmental benefits:
  • Saving a few trees
  • Reduced environmental impact of printing and transporting the newspapers.
  • No more plastic bags!
• No need to cancel the delivery when we go on vacation.
• And, speaking of vacations, you can keep up with your hometown news when on vacation.
• Less clutter!

We’re sold on the benefits of digital subscriptions. I recently subscribed to a magazine and chose a digital subscription instead of paper. I’ve even given up my printed Hello magazines.

The only downside to all this is not having old newspapers to wrap gifts (see 10 gift wrap ideas…that don’t feed the landfill). I guess we’ll have to use the flyers for that. Yes, I’m talking about the flyers that are thrown at the end of our driveway every week in a plastic bag. I wish I could cancel my subscription to them too!

Where do you get your news? Have you switched to digital subscriptions? Tell us below.