Paul Goble
Staunton, Oct. 13 – Over the past two years alone, more than 5,000 printed newspapers have gone out of business, and in some regions, there is now not a little newspaper still coming out, Eva Merkacheva says. Many people aren’t concerned and believe that digital sources fully replace them; but those who think that way are wrong.
There are four reasons why supporting the continued appearance of printed newspapers is important, the rights activist says. First of all, she says, newspapers and other printed materials are “the material witnesses of their times” (mk.ru/editions/daily/2026/10/13/v-nekotorykh-rossiyskikh-regionakh-polnostyu-ischezli-gazety-chem-eto-opasno.html).
Second, Merkacheva continues, “digital information can be changed, replaced or deleted.” Doing the same things with paper originals “especially when newspapers were issued in large print runs,” and that provides “some insurance against the falsification of history at all times.”
Third, “electronic archives depend on electricity, equipment, programs and servers.” These can easily be compromised by “cyberattacks, accidents, wars and other catastrophes … Paper archives are also vulnerable, but when information is stored in different ways, the probability of its total loss is much lower.”
And fourth, “to read an old newspaper, you don’t need a computer; but will we be able to read all modern digital formats 200 years from now without special equipment and programs? Technology is constantly changing, so it is important to keep information in that form independent of technological development.”
There is now a kind of underground in Russia that is trying to save as many newspaper print runs as possible so that people will have a chance to read newspapers from many places and long into the future. That is important work and deserves to be supported by all.
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