Mom is cancelling newspaper subscription after 60 years?

As long as I can remember my mom has read the newspaper every day, front to back. Always. Without exception. I'm sure that's where I learned to be such an avid reader and part of the reason I became a news/political junkie.

Mom was born and raised in Chesterfield County and has lived there all her life, graduating from Thomas Dale High School after World War II, raising a family, working in a man's world at a time when most women were staying home raising children. The newspaper was a daily part of her life.

I just got off the phone with her and she told me that, after 60 years of home delivery, they are cancelling their subscription to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Avid letter writers throughout the years, they began to notice changes at the paper beginning last summer. Those changes have become more and more disturbing to my parents especially with the loss of Ross Mackenzie earlier this year when he retired, taking with him his conservative values and beliefs.

My parents are entering the "read-it-on-the-computer" age because they no longer want to financially support a newspaper they believe is turning too liberal.

My sister recently cancelled her subscription to the Times Dispatch after receiving it for years. I continue to receive it here in the Valley but my husband and I were recently talking about possibly letting that subscription lapse....

The Times Dispatch has long been a lone bastion of conservativeness in a liberal sea of journalism. It's sad to see it changing.

I cannot imagine my mom not starting her day at the kitchen table reading the newspaper....