I wonder how long it will be before newspapers as such, the paper bit I mean, are a thing of the past. They are already on line and complaining bitterly that advertising revenue has dropped considerably as well as circulation which is hardly surprising and some have already gone to the wall. I remember a time when newspapers were so affordable that even on a small income or hardly any income at all, we used to get half a dozen of the Sundays, during the week a morning paper and an evening paper, plus The Stage once a week and, moving to the country, a local paper once a week. As the price of newspapers increased and the income didn’t increase in proportion gradually the Sundays were whittled down until only The Sunday Times was left. And we carried on getting the Sunday Times here in Crete until one day we stopped even that. Why? Because of an executive decision or somebody’s decision for a plan to save the paper money. The S.T here costs 5euro, the equivalent of roughly, depending upon the rate of exchange, £4.65 and, all things might be relative but that is a not inconsiderable sum to pay for a newspaper. Fine though if one were getting what readers in the UK get for their money but … here for a start the magazine was never included and gradually all the other extras were withdrawn until finally we were left with the main pages and situations vacant. Now why situations vacant? Nobody here is looking for employment in the UK. If they were looking for employment in the UK that’s where they would be. The final straw was when the Culture section was withdrawn. There were howls of outrage of course which somebody at the office tried to smooth over by saying the paper did take its readers’ objections into account and oh blah blah blah. Of course there was no reversal and since that time the Sunday Times has been boycotted. That means we have saved over a thousand pounds and the paper has lost over a thousand pounds, about £1209. If ten households had followed suit that would be £12090 and, if a hundred or more had followed suit, well, serve them right for NOT taking their readers’ objections into account. So, after having been a loyal reader for nearly fifty years, all I can say is piss on The Sunday Times. We now get the Culture section sent to us every few months from friends in England and all it costs is the postage, the equivalent of about one edition of the paper.