Newspapers are traditional to the United States. They have been around for more than 300 years, and suddenly the sales are going downhill. What is the cause for the decrease in people buying printed papers? Newspapers are now going online.

Many newspapers all over the country are going to the Internet, because it is easier or more convenient for them. As a result, their printed papers are decreasing in sales, and they are making no profit from their online papers. People are getting free information, and they don't even know whether it's correct or incorrect. It seems to me that newspapers online are less careful about what they print, because if there is a mistake, they can just hop online and fix it. No harm done, right? I disagree. Not only is moving newspapers online taking away the traditional value of the papers, but it is lessening the value of information. On Wikipedia, anyone can log on and change information around. It's the same way with newspapers. Anyone who can log onto the website can change information without it being edited before being posted. Some people think that the Internet is a quick and easy way to get the latest newspaper scoop, but who knows what correct or incorrect information you could be gathering. 

Although some people, say the ones who work on computers all day and all week, say that the online newspapers are more convenient. However, I disagree again. People who work in fields such as construction, the restaurant business, landscaping, or oceanography, are not usually in front of the computer all day long. According to my father, Dave Gross, who is in the construction business, it is much easier to pick up a printed copy of a newspaper and read it. He is almost never in front of a computer, and when he is he is focusing on his bills. At work if he takes a break for lunch, he can pick up the newspaper. However if you are in front of a computer, all you have to do is click the link and get quick information on just about anything.

I feel that they are both convenient and both important to have, and neither one should be eliminated completely. Online newspapers are a great thing to have for high school students through college students, because they can get them on their lap tops and even on their cell phones. We students are almost always on the go, so it can sometimes be hard to sit down and relax while reading the paper. Although the online papers are a great way to gather news, articles read should be payed for. If they are not, newspapers are making a lot less profit than when they were strictly a printed paper. I feel as if printed newspapers could be lost completely soon, and I don't want that to happen. Hopefully newspapers will make sense of what a real newspaper is and keep the printed issues. They are a part of American history, and it would be awful to see a piece of history be lost forever.