The Five Easy Pieces model for newspaper subscriptions

We have the New York Times delivered to us on Sunday morning. It's a nice tradition, letting us pick at the major sections, including the magazine, book reviews, and opinion pages. With that subscription, I also get All Digital Access that includes web, tablet, and phone access for the whole week.
Increasingly, though, I find that I'm reading the stuff online a day or two before the paper arrives. The Times online editions start showing on Thursday. Something might be posted on Twitter or someone else's blog includes a link to a story that's destined for print on Sunday.
As a result, there are weeks when I've already read the pieces of interest and the paper goes straight to the recycling bin.
Maybe, I thought, I could save a tree and just get the digital editions.
The digital editions cost $8.75 per week. Home delivery of the Sunday paper, which includes the digital access, costs $8.10 per week.
I save 65¢ by throwing the paper away.

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Full disclosure: I am a contracted employee of the Worcester Telegram and Gazette, a company formerly owned by the New York Times. A most wonderful benefactor, John Henry, recently purchased the T&G along with the Boston Globe. The Globe has a more sensible policy, allowing me to pay a lower price for digital-only.

Wither the funnies of Sunday

Most of the time, I favor the present and future over the past. I think that, overall, we are making things better for ourselves and for the next generations. You can call me naïve, but I won't answer. We've eradicated diseases, brought freedom to more people in more places, and even reduced the amount of violence in the world. In spite of what you might hear from political campaigns or from the pulpit, life is getting much better for many more.

So, why, for all of our great wisdom and talent, have the Sunday funny pages become a cruel mockery of past glories?

Here's what you get now:

[caption id="attachment_3368" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Boston Sunday Globe - 1 Apr 2012 (click to enbiggen)"][/caption]

Here's what you got in April 1970 (via Whirled of Kelly - Play Ball!)

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="220" caption="Pogo full-page Sunday comic - 5 Apr 1970 (click to enbiggen)"][/caption]

It wasn't just Walt Kelly's great talent for writing and drawing that made these strips so stunning. The newspapers published them, giving over a whole page to a single comic. The papers had to pay good money to do this. The papers of old made money by believing that the public were worthy of this rich nectar. The papers of new are surprised that modern readers don't savor comics made of high-fructose corn syrup.

Why are we reading about this in the Wall Street Journal

In Massachusetts Takes Aim at Red Tape, the WSJ tells us about Gov. Deval Patrick's plan to simplify the ways in which businesses do business. Under the cleanup project, announced to state workers on Friday, the state will eliminate 150 admittedly silly regulations that get in the way. Review of another 800 regulations is continuing. For example, if the owner of a hair salon wants to transfer ownership to an employee , the salon would have to close while the transfer paperwork was being processed. It's a good story about the state and the governor.

There is no story about this project  in the Worcester Telegram, Boston Globe, or Boston Herald. But, Saturday's Telegram had two (1,2)stories about Cee Lo Green set up shop in Las Vegas.