What Does This Say About the News Industry?

When I was in Columbia a couple of weeks ago to promote In Good Hands, I asked the hotel clerk where I could buy dental floss and a copy of The State  newspaper. She thought about it for a minute and said, “Well, there’s a Walmart over the bridge. You could just go there.” It struck me as a bit of overkill, but why not? I needed the exercise anyway.

I logged about a quarter mile walking from my car to the oral hygiene department. Then I started scouring the front for newspapers. I covered a lot of ground before I decided I needed help. Usually you can find papers near the cash registers, so I asked a woman who was running one.

“We don’t sell newspapers,” she told me. What? I was dumbfounded. This was Walmart! They sell everything!!

I tried a couple of convenience stores at gas stations. Nope. At the second one, the guy told me to try the CVS down the street. Ironically, that’s the first place I’d thought of going for dental floss.

They had newspapers all right. But the young woman who sold me the paper seemed a little puzzled. Now in fairness, maybe it was because I bought two copies (there were articles related to my book). Perhaps that’s why she gave me a quizzical look and said, “They have some good coupons in there, right?”