Internet kills the LafaShopper News

    I understand the LafaShopper News will soon be a thing of the past.
    Back in the day when newspapers were worried about competition, shoppers were a good way to keep competing newspapers from opening up shop. The LafaShopper, which started showing up in driveways in 1975, once was a robust publication featuring 12 or more broadsheet pages each week. Today it's a broadsheet page or two made into a tab paper.
    There was a time when the only way to get a phone number for a business was the phone book. Businesses too new for the phone book had to rely on massive advertising in the newspaper. No more. Today I can type any name into my computer and quickly get any phone number I need.
    I still go to the newspaper for classified ads, but Craigslist has gobbled up a huge share of real estate and for sale ads. Newspapers are struggling with this reality, and so apparently there is no longer a demand for a "shopper."
    Postal regulations allow newspapers to distribute a certain number of "free" newspapers while still maintaining their second-class permit. It can be a great boost to ad sales to have a blanket-the-county day for the local paper, where every driveway in the county gets a copy of the actual daily newspaper. The Oxford Eagle would be wise to do this from time to time, both as an effort to boost circulation and as a way to sell advertising.
    I guess the LafaShopper served its purpose and now its time has come and gone.
    I guess Mr. Abbot will have to rewrite his exam question about the foreclosure notice published in the LafaShopper.