Good Spending: Buy a Newspaper Today

It's no secret that newspapers are in trouble. This condition has been worsening and becoming critical now that the economic crisis has gone from bad to worse. In an earlier post, I suggested that we support businesses that share our values whether local or global. With money is short supply, we must spend our dollars wisely.

So why not buy a newspaper today! Take the New York Times, for example. Where else could you get such value for $1.50? Not to mention that it has been doing an amazing job covering the economy with daily stories explaining the arcane workings of the financial system and how integral it has become to our daily lives. If there's a war in the Middle East, the Times is there! One can always quibble about its coverage of this or that, but hands down it is delivering the goods on a daily basis about all sorts of things we would never know anything about if it weren't for them. Sure, you can read the online version and cobble together the news of what you need to know from the numerous sources available on the Internet, but the print version allows you to pop in and out of stories and to discover things you would otherwise know very little about.

But that's not the point. Even if you don't care about what's going on in Outer Mongolia and who ends up being the coach of the New York Jets football team, supporting your newspaper of choice has become a civic duty. We need the Times and the Times needs us to come through for them. Lets get on the bailout bandwagon. For years, the Times has been running a series where they call attention to worthy people in need of help called "Help the Neediest." Well, now it's our turn!