Yet another reason newspapers are dying, and it's not what you think

I subscribed to the daily paper.

Don't ask me why; I haven't been a subscriber to the dead tree edition of the San Francisco Chronicle in years. I got it at my old house for my mother, who read it faithfully, but I personally never looked at, and canceled the subscription when she passed away in September of last year.

But when I recently moved, I had to fight the impulse to subscribe nearly every day, until finally I gave in and did it.

That's when I realized that this was the very first time in my life I've moved to a new home and not subscribed to the paper as a sort of routine part of moving. Even when I lived in the country and getting the paper was a huge pain in the butt, I at least tried to get it.

But that was all years ago, and my reading habits have completely changed since then. Like, I guess, nearly everyone, I get most of my news from a wide variety of online sources, including a lot of newspaper websites, even including the Chronicle's SFGate.com (for which I'm a columnist). The habit of reading a single paper cover to cover was broken so long ago I can't quite remember when it happened.

I've kind of enjoyed the ritual of going into my front yard every morning to get the paper and let the dogs sniff around, but I think I'm going to be canceling my subscription soon.

Two reasons: One, the paper is pitifully thin. If it weren't for the advertising inserts, it would be thinner than our little monthly neighborhood free shopper. It's really sad.

Two, the delivery has been atrocious. I've only been getting the paper for a couple of weeks, and I've had four days it wasn't delivered. That's 4 out of 14, which if it continues to be that bad means in a given month, I'll get the paper only three weeks out of four. And if you don't report it before 9:30 AM, you can't get it re-delivered, you just have to take a credit.

I realize that "newspapers are dying" is the stupidest and most over-done topic on the entire Interwebz, and I should be embarrassed to be writing about it at all. But until now, I haven't missed the role the newspaper used to play in my life, or the social landscape of America, or even just of San Francisco.

Even now, saying I write for the Chronicle is my single best "ticket" to access to sources for stories. There's a cachet there that hasn't gone away even as the paper dwindles down to minisculosity.

So it's late. It's irrelevant. I know. But just for today, I miss newspapers.