Is your loyalty to news or newsprint?

When I first saw the teaser about Roy Peter Clark's column on Poynter newsletter, I laughed--uproariously! The premise of an article that says it's our duty to read print newspapers is what is utterly wrong with traditional journalism today. As a group we are very un-Darwinian. Clark writes:

"I confess that I don't spend as much time as I used to reading the newspaper -- any newspaper.

I'm making a promise to myself, and now to you, to reverse this trend. The future of journalism, not just newspapers, depends upon such loyalty. And now I pose this challenge to you: It is your duty as a journalist and a citizen to read the newspaper -- emphasis on paper, not pixels."

Why is it our duty to read newspapers on paper?

"There is one overriding question about the future of journalism that no one can yet answer: How will we pay for it? Who will pay for good reporters and editors? Who will pay to station them in statehouses, or send them to cover wars and disasters? Who will finance important investigations in support of the public's health and safety?"

There are, at this writing, 83 responses to Clark's column, which for a Poynter column is HUGE, I mean HUGE feedback. If you don't want to read through all 83, he has summarized and categorized the feedback for easy reading. Comments break down into:

My duty is... (not a loyalty to newsprint)
Force the future
Follow the money
The Kodak analogy
Serve the audience
My paper abandoned me
And finally, The silver lining (we are reading and consuming news, just not in newsprint)

Check it out -- and let Clark and Poynter know where you stand.