Howie: Why would any smart newspaper keep printing? Nobody reads — or pays — for a paper anymore.

Let’s just spit it out straight: printing newspapers these days is about as sharp as opening a Blockbuster next to a Netflix office. Who’s still out there smudging their fingers with ink, paying good money to rifle through pages that are already stale by the time they hit the newsracks or arrive in the mail? Practically nobody.

Today’s reader gets everything on a glowing rectangle — phones, tablets, desktops — whether they’re parked at the kitchen table, slouching in a breakroom, or sunburning their knees on Park Point. They want their local headlines instant, alive, and free. Try competing with a screen that lives in their pocket and pings them the minute the mayor screws up or the local phenom scores another hat trick.

So why do so many publishers still cling to the presses, draining money into newsprint and delivery trucks? Habit, mostly. A warm, romantic cling to the way grandpa got his paper. And, deep down, a desperate hope that the plump print ad dollars of 1997 might boomerang back and rescue them. (Heads up: they won’t.)

If I were running a local news outfit — and after 50 years prowling these streets and pounding out copy, I’ve earned the fantasy — I’d drop print tomorrow. I’d shove every last nickel into being the most relentless, indispensable, hyper-local digital news shop this side of the Mississippi. I’d break stories first, tell them sharper, dig harder than any neighboring outlet. I’d live for the late-night hockey updates, the mid-morning sewer main blowouts, the afternoon council sniping — all online, all day, all for free.

Because here’s the local dirty little secret: paywalls mostly flop for community papers. You might hook a few loyalists for five bucks a month, but meanwhile, the rest of your would-be audience just hops over to Facebook rumor mills. If you want to be the lifeblood of a town, you’ve got to be open to everyone, every hour. Then you monetize the eyeballs by selling smart, tasteful, hometown ads to local businesses — who still want to be seen as the champions keeping your community informed.

Screw the belly-fat clickbait and the spammy national filler. Keep it local, keep it proud, and keep it laser-focused on serving your neighbors. Because it’s not just about people scrolling on their couch. It’s about reaching them wherever they are — watching Little League games behind Wade Stadium or at Lake Park, hauling grocery bags to their Subaru, thumbing their phones in line at Kwik Trip, or sprawled out on the sand.

The second something breaks? Bam. Get it on your website first. Fire off a breaking-news email that zings their pocket with a juicy little “Read more” link. Keep it snappy. Keep it coming. Become so essential that skipping your site in the morning feels like skipping their first cup of coffee.

Sure, print was gorgeous in its day. The smell of fresh pages, the thunk on the porch at dawn, grandma clipping your state tourney goal for the fridge. That was then. Now, if your hometown paper isn’t all-in on digital, it’s basically in hospice, reminiscing about the glory days while the future streams by on TikTok.

So do yourself — and your community — a favor. Drop the print ego. Double down on digital. Cover every pothole, every planning commission dust-up, every kid’s hat trick like it matters, because it does. Make your site the heartbeat of your town, free and fast and everywhere. Then go out and sell the local ads that keep the lights on.

Because if you’re still fussing over tomorrow’s front-page layout while the world’s reading the next big scoop on their phones, I’ve got some tough love for you: you’re already yesterday’s news.