Submitted: The Two Sides Team November 22, 2012

Many readers in the mid-Atlantic region report a new appreciation for print media in the wake of Sandy’s mayhem.

November 11 2012, Dead Tree Edition

Many readers in the mid-Atlantic region report a new appreciation for
print media in the wake of Sandy’s mayhem. Among the observations they
passed along are:

1. The best photos are still created for print media. Iwan Baan rented a helicopter to capture the stunning image that graced the cover of New
   York magazine’s post-storm issue. No one goes to those kinds of lengths,
   or expense, to produce a photo that will only appear in digital media. 
   
2. Print works just fine when the power is out.
   
3. Print’s battery doesn’t die.
   
4. If you own a printed product, you don’t need a wifi connection to access it. 
5. This came from a New York reader: “When I awoke to what looked like a
   war zone Tuesday [Oct. 30], I thought I was completely cut off from the
   outside world – no power, no Internet, no phone, no battery-operated or
   hand-cranked radio (since rectified). But when I ventured outside my
   apartment building, I spotted a newspaper box with an amazing sight:
   that day’s edition of the New York Daily News. It had obviously
   ‘gone to bed’ too early the previous evening to have all the news of the
   storm, but I eagerly dug in. At that moment print was clearly the
   superior technology for conveying news.”
6. A New Jersey resident wrote: “We didn’t get enough rain Monday night
   [Oct. 29] to cause any flooding, but by the next morning most major
   roads were blocked by downed power lines and utility poles and
   practically the whole town had no electricity. The whole region was such
   a mess that the local daily newspaper didn’t even try to publish that
   day. Our street was eerily quiet most of the morning until we heard the
   familiar whirr of a motor. There was our letter carrier coming up the
   street, delivering mail as if nothing had happened. It was days before
   UPS and FedEx got their deliveries to our area straightened out, and my
   neighbor was still complaining a week after the storm about not being
   able to access the books and magazines she had bought for her e-reader
   (‘How’s that Kindle workin’ for ya now, sweetheart?’). We received
   several magazines by mail after the storm and never missed a mail
   delivery during the week the power was out.
   
7. And another Jerseyan: “Our Republican governor pointed out that we
   seem to be getting a ‘Storm of the Century’ every couple of years. NOW
   do you believe in global warming?” Yep, the storm should be a wake-up
   call that it’s time to move beyond simplistic slogans like “Go green, go
   paperless” and “Paper is all natural” and dig in to the serious work of
   making our media choices more earth friendly.

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