LETTER: Newspapers are a vital part of life

SIR – John Burns, in his ‘Media Player’ section of Culture magazine in the Irish Sunday Times (April 10th) wrote of the relatively healthy life of the provincial press in the Republic. Publications are surviving, often against the odds. This is good news.

The fortunes of newspapers in the UK and Northern Ireland are not so lucky, it appears, which is bad news. Newspapers, to my mind, are a vital part of daily and weekly life. 

Even with the advent of the internet and associated news outlets, there is never the same satisfaction as opening a newspaper at any time of the day. And, I love the internet also.

My love of the written word began when as a little boy coming home from schoolevery day, my mother would have The Irish Press opened at the comic section for me, where ‘The Cisco Kid’ and ‘Blondie’ would be hanging on the back of my kitchen chair. From there, I would stroll around the rest of the paper.

Newspapers were a child’s view of the wider world before television and the wireless was mostly in the ownership of adults. Many children received the love of reading from newspapers rather than school books, which often frightened us.

There was/is a great freedom in reading the paper, which can be done at one’s own pace. I always feel sad when a newspaper closes down and when fine journalists do not know when their next payday will be. 

Yet, I am confident newspapers will survive in the cut-throat world of the media bosses.

Robert Sullivan,

Bantry.