Here's an Idea

Okay, so newspapers are in trouble. Circulations are falling because nobody reads any more. So why don't we try what they're doing in France? Free newspaper subscriptions to kids on their 18th birthdays.

Here's an article from the Associated Press.  Strictly reporting; "Just the facts, m'am."

One of Sarkozy's solutions to help the industry is a pilot program that will give teenagers celebrating their 18th birthday a free, yearlong subscription to any general news daily of their choice. The publisher is to give the newspapers away, while the state pays for the deliveries.

That initiative appeared designed to assuage industry fears that young readers don't share the same appetite for print media that their parents and grandparents have, denting current and future revenues.

"The habit of reading the press is learned very young," Sarkozy said.

Sounds like a good idea to me.  I never read a newspaper seriously (outside Sports and Funnies) until I was in college, when the Red Chinese leader Mao zeDong died.  At the same time there was social unrest in Mexico, so I thought "I should pick up a newspaper."  I got myself a copy of The New York Times, and I've been reading it ever since.

But Cory Doctorow, writing for a blog called Boing-Boing, is a lot more skeptical.

The latest weird-ass move from French President Sarkozy is to bail out newspapers by giving kids free daily newspaper subscriptions on their 18th birthdays, which is supposed to instill "the habit of reading the press." I wonder if he'll also give out free bridle and tackle to instill "the habit of dressage." How about stimulating the French press by giving all the kids free, uncensored broadband?

He thinks that nothing will make you young people read, and that newspapers are on their way out!