Roy Peter Clark of the Poynter Institute wanted to start a bun-toss, so he posted a column entitled Your duty to read the paper.

From the column:

Until we create some new business models in support of the journalism profession, we've got to support what we have, even as we create and perfect online versions that may one day attract the advertising dollars and other revenues we need to do what we do well.

I've been reading the paper more closely lately, spending at least 15 minutes in the morning, and then picking up some longer stories and features in the evening. The experience has reminded me of something I forgot along the way: that there is no substitute for the local daily newspaper if I am going to live as a full-blooded citizen in a place that I love.

Veteran online news exec Steve Yelvington had this riposte:

He says journalists should read more newspapers because they have a duty to do so.

I say they should read less.

Toss print aside.

Get out of the office.

Start talking to real people.

Discover that we entered the 21st century more than seven years ago.

The Cleaver family doesn't live here any more.

Quit blaming the Internet. There's nothing wrong with paper. It's your journalism that isn't relevant.

Clark doesn't believe there's an online business model. He's wrong.

Grassroots journalism evangelist K. Paul Mallasch had this to say:

... Instead of subscribing to print to 'save journalism,' find a local, independent publisher online and support THEM. For truly, we are the future of journalism - in our apartments and homes across this land of ours. Journalism is a conversation (not a burger to be mass produced and sold), and we understand this.

In the comments section of the actual Poynter post, one person argued that people should support advertisers who buy display and other advertising from the newspaper rather than stuff mailboxes with junk flyers.

There's actually lots of great comments, so click through and read them.

In the meantime, here's some of my thoughts.

Personally, I don't think we have a duty to read newspaper journalists' on newsprint. It's the business's duty to produce something that people want to make part of their lives.

I subscribe to The Globe and Mail because I think it's a great paper (certain editorials and columnists excepted). I read the Toronto Star quite regularly and almost never read the National Post or Toronto Sun.

All those publications now have websites. The Globe was an earlier leader in using the Web's advantages to complement the paper; for example, having a note in the paper reminding people to check the site in the morning for West Coast hockey game stories (they end too late for T.O. deadlines). The Globe was also the first Canadian newspaper to assemble a Web  team to handle breaking news (I worked for globeandmail.com from 2000 to early 2003 as a web producer).

The newspaper still has competitive advantages over the Web in the areas of design, photojournalism, browse-ibility and, most importantly of all, the ability to contextualize and make longer-form works digestible.

On the Web, the emphasis is on speed and easy readability at the expense of context. There are major Web sites in Canada that don't want stories more than 14 to 16 paragraphs long.

Speed of posting is important; breaking news is perishable. But one of my aphorisms is that the Web combines the timeliness of broadcast with the timelessness of a library.

Web stories could theoretically be there forever. Are we doing history any favours by writing that 'something happened,' and then moving on to the next quick hit instead of developing depth in a noteworthy story?

Quality newspapers add that precious gift of depth.  They give seasoned journalists the precious gift of time to get to the heart of an important story.

For their many journalistic advantages, newspapers are tottering.

Newspapers are dying the deaths of a thousand revenue cuts as a result of Internet-based services like craigslist (classified ads provide about 35 per cent of an average newspaper's revenue base; craigslist offers them for free).

Newspapers are department stores in a boutique world. It's exceedingly difficult to create a general-interest newspaper that offers enough something for everybody. The Internet allows people to transcend the barriers of geography to create online communities of interest.

Newspapers are expensive to produce. Newsprint is a huge cost; server space is much cheaper.

More later; my home Internet access is down and I'm writing from a Net cafe ...