Week after week, people who don’t ask for rolled-up newspapers find those dead-tree publications on their porches.
Wasted paper, each week, of each month, of each season, of each year. The distribution comes close to lawful littering.
Publishers should be required to obtain consent before dumping these papers on homeowners’ lawns.
That prior consent would be burdensome for publishers, who’d rather toss sheet after sheet of next-to-worthless pulp throughout an entire neighborhood, and by doing so convince overpaying advertisers that their money’s been well-spent on a wide distribution.
People who’ve subscribed to newspapers have made a legitimate choice to manage the publications that pile up on their lawns and in their houses. Everyone else has an unwanted trash-collection-and-recycling regimen imposed without consent.
The more digital (and the sooner), the better.