In school we learned poems about log drives in Quebec. Loggers worked all winter in the forests and in the spring the logs were floated down the rivers to the paper mills.

That is history, nothing but folklore anymore. There are still lumber mills; there are mills producing tissue paper, computer paper, glossy magazine paper, but the logs are all hauled by truck. And the last newsprint mill in Quebec is closing.

I suppose I am part of the problem. I’m still pretty much a news junkie, but I don’t buy newspapers anymore. I read them on my cell phone.

Now I can read the daily newspaper from our nearest city, a national English language newspaper, a national French language newspaper, a newsmagazine from France, a provincial French language weekly newspaper, pretty much anything I want to read is available to me on that little device in my pocket.

Paper newspapers are getting thinner, some have died, more will die. Montreal’s La Presse, the largest French language newspaper in North America, does not use paper anymore. It is all available on the internet, and only on the internet.

Think of the money that is saved in the cost of paper, ink and distribution. Not only that, but its reach has greatly expanded. Paper copies of la Presse were never available here in Saskatchewan, unless you wanted to pay for a mail subscription. But then the news would always be stale. And don’t let me get started about the reliability. or lack thereof, of our postal system. Now the news is constantly updated and available to anyone with a cell phone.

The Saskatoon Star-Phoenix will not longer deliver paper copies to rural areas. That’s fine, it’s right here in my pocket on my phone. The National Post ceased distribution of paper copies in Saskatchewan a few years ago. No problem. I can’t find l’Eau Vive , a weekly newspaper printed in Regina, anywhere in Saskatoon. I don’t care if they never print another copy, it’s so much handier to read it online.

Moose Jaw is the old home base for our family and I am still interested in what goes on there. The Moose Jaw Times-Herald ceased publication last year after 112 years of daily publication. There is still a bi-weekly newspaper, but something even better has appeared – the Daily Jaw, an online newspaper.

I’m an old guy, old-fashioned and resistant to change. But paperless news is change that I like.