Why is it so hard to buy a newspaper?

I want two things in the morning, at the same time – a newspaper and a coffee. I can’t imagine I’m unusual in that. But trying to find the two together is harder than you’d think.

Take this morning. I drove into town round the waterfront. There’s a guy outside Hammerheads who sells coffee there, but no newspapers as far as I can gather so I didn’t stop.

Instead I pushed on and parked my car in the Civic carpark. I walked to the nearest coffee shop on Queen Street. Coffee, but no paper. I looked in at another three coffee shops in the same block. Same deal: coffee, but no newspaper.

And not a newspaper honesty box in sight nor a cheerful chap selling them on the corner.

I had to go out of my way to buy a paper. Why?

And this in times of falling circulation. By all means newspapers should focus energy on expanding their product range to include the web where so many of their readers are migrating, but let’s not forget the basics – if you can’t find a paper you can’t buy it.