Newspaper Holiday

When I checked Dawn, Pakistan’s most widely-circulated English language newspaper’s web site last Sunday, it informed me there was no print version that day due to a “newspaper holiday”. I’d never heard of that. I seem to remember no newspaper in England on Christmas Day, but even that may have changed. A little Googling informed me that many Asian countries observe up to 12 days per year when none of the newspapers publishes a print edition. For example, in Bangladesh, Japan (second story down, from the 2002 Honolulu Star-Bulletin), Indonesia, etc. The Star-Bulletin states: ” According to the Wall Street Journal, Japanese newspapers have traditionally shut down once a month. They say it’s to provide a break for delivery employees. True to traditions of cozy cooperation within the Japanese press, each Jan. 1 Tokyo’s two major dailies, the Mainichi and Asahi, would announce the 12 holiday dates they planned to close and all major Japanese papers would follow suit.” The article notes the tradition may be failing, due to desire for another day’s profits. In other countries, newspaper holidays still exist, often coinciding with national or religious ones.

I’ve become so used to 24/7/365 news coverage I think I would find a day without newspapers very odd.

The reason I bring this up today, is that my daughter and I are out of town, visiting Southern Oregon University on Preview Day. So while there won’t be a complete blog holiday, this and other posts yesterday and later today are being put up by the super-duper automatic scheduler feature handily installed by Fairy Blogmother extraordinaire Lynn Siprelle. I’ll answer any comments when I return. And Next Up at City Council may be a little late this week.

I’m sure you’ll find ways to get by.