This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedanta.

For decades, this was the sound of mornings in America.

Millions of people waking up to the thud of a newspaper on their front step.

But increasingly, the sounds quaint.

Even longtime subscribers, the people who love the feel of a newspaper in their hands

as they sift their morning coffee, many have decided to cancel.

I used to get the Denver Post delivered even after it was online.

I just liked having the paper, but then I found I wasn't actually reading it.

It would just kind of pile up and I'd recycle it.

So I let that lapse.

Denver used to have two vibrant morning papers.

In the last few years, many residents stopped getting a local paper,

some switched to reading online.

Others never had a subscription in the first place.

I've never subscribed to a local publication.

I usually just get the free ones like Westward, Westward.

The free one that comes out in the little red bins all over Denver.

Love the coupons.

What I wanted the paper for is the coupons.

And I mean Facebook has everything.

So yeah.

There are lots of options today to pay less or nothing to read the news.

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