The London Papers

A woman, under 30, feeds her news habit one morning in London.

To keep up on the latest news from Ukraine, I have taken to watching Sky News from London.

Every night the channel devotes almost a full half hour to previewing what will be on the front pages of the next day’s newspapers. There are nearly a dozen front pages to preview each night.

Unlike the United States, where the newspaper business is barely hanging on in many cities, devoured by the internet, in England people of all ages read the news. It is part of the culture. Especially in cities like London where something to read - to hold in your hands - goes naturally with a ride to work on the subway.

Except for New York, most American cities have long been one newspaper towns.

Most contemporary thinkers about American journalism are focused on developing new ways to deliver news to an audience that seems to have no interest in buying, or reading, physical newspapers. I do not propose to argue whether that is a good thing or a bad thing. I simply want to point out that the death of the newspaper industry is not a worldwide trend. The populations of many countries have a news habit that includes the consumption of a daily newspaper or two.

Can the habit be revived in the United States? Does it matter?

The idea of a “news habit” was first introduced to me in the fifth grade by a teacher whose husband happened to a reporter for the local paper. In a democracy, where an informed electorate is vital to the selection of our leaders, it would be a good idea to instill a news habit - in school - starting at an early age. The format - how we get our news - doesn’t matter much, but the information does.

An informed electorate is harder to mislead. Ideally, our system is built to be led by an informed electorate, not the other way around.