This is an iconic image of Americana: a newspaper boy.  He was the Yahoo of his time. It was the Golden Age of Newspapers, 1918 in this case, a century ago. But with the exception of the delivery system, the success of newspaper – print publications – is the same now as it was then. It was the source of unvarnished information.  You may not have liked what you read but it gave you an extensive, detailed snapshot of the day. Newspapers today are struggling because they have pulled free of their roots. Newspapers a century ago, sensationalistic as they were, presented “the full story” and did local investigative reporting. Online news sources will never be able to compete with what made print publication great in the first place. The people who read online news want the basics quick. Quality readers want the nitty-gritty and the follow-up.  When newspapers go back to doing their real job, quality investigative reporting, they will be able to pull themselves out of the grave they are digging for themselves.