London is a newspaper town. Many daily newspapers are readily available in shops from newsagents to supermarkets. You can’t miss them. Newspapers are readily available for free in the afternoon on street corners. Newspapers are everywhere in London – not only in shops but you can see plenty being read on trains, in the streets and elsewhere.
It is hard to find newspapers now in New York. While there are newsstand kiosks in some streets, most will have one or two titles and even then they are tucked away. The newspaper space is taken by convenience likes like umbrellas, drinks and candy. Newspapers appear to be nowhere in New York – despite plenty of foot traffic on the streets.
While I have been to both cities plenty of times in recent years it was only when I visited each in the last week that the difference became obvious to me. I wonder why it is so? Is it a reflection of the place of newspapers in the respective countries? Is it as a result of publisher commitment? I don’t know. What I do know is that in London I get the feeling that newspapers are relevant while in New York I get the feeling that the medium is dead.