“I’m too busy to read a newspaper.”

Concerned with the fall of the newspaper empire, I’ve made it a point in the past few days to talk about news sources with my friends and family members. And, after asking simple questions like “What’s your favorite newspaper?” and “How often do you read a newspaper?,” I’ve heard the same response over and over again.

“I’m too busy to read a newspaper.”

Too busy? Are we really too busy to take ten minutes out of our day to sit down and read the latest front page articles in The New York Times?

Apparently we are, and this “busyness” could be one of the many reasons why newspapers are remaining in newsstand piles, unsold and collecting dust.

While newspapers are beginning to die out completely, websites like Google News are doing quite well by presenting a broad array of news headlines without all of the extra article text attached to it. In essence, Google News thrives by showing short, time-friendly, up-to-date news blurbs that can “inform” readers without the hassle of much reading time or extra thought.

Other news sources have begun to catch on to this style of reporting. On cnn.com, major news articles have a section right next to their headlines called “Story Highlights.” By reading these highlights, one can get a general overview of what the following story is about.

That’s what these news sources are now starting to offer – a gist. And, when news articles are condensed into three short sentences, all the nuance of a finely written news article is lost in translation. For the sake of saving a few minutes, we’re reading the shortest possible text looking for the greatest possible return. And this attitude is cheapening the news media experience.

But, is this “busyness” I’ve been hearing about really the cause of our inability to commit to reading a daily or even weekly paper? Are we really too busy or are we just not motivated? After all, reading a newspaper on even a semi-regular basis requires dedication.

It could be that we’re simply a part of an A. D. D. culture that’s constantly looking for shortcuts. Or we could simply be losing interest in the dated newspaper format.

Either way, our interest in newspapers seems to be slowly dying, right along with the newspapers themselves.

I’d like to think that we’d be able to make time for something as important as the daily newspapers. However, with the rapidly declining newspaper business, we might not have a chance to reevaluate the attention we give to these print news sources. After all, it could be just a few more months before we realize that we’ve completely lost one of the biggest cultural trends in American history – the daily newspaper.