Opinion : New news is still news, even though if some in the old news world don't know it

For some people, the idea of a newspaper that exists only on-line is a surprisingly new, perhaps even radical, idea.

But for others, the response seems to have been, “Well, it’s about time you showed up.”

People in America do all kinds of crazy things on the Internet.

Thirty million of us play a game called “Farmville,” buying virtual fertilizer for fields that do not exist, and getting friends to virtually help them. This causes people with real farms to say, “Hey if they have so much time and interest in farming, they can come pick up rocks at my farm.”

A seemingly very intelligent woman named Kathy Frederick made the news this week on a very serious news venue — National Public Radio — because she has been blogging about a plastic shopping bag that became stuck in a tree near her college campus. Ms. Frederick has countless people following the history of this bag — which she has named Windy — via the Internet. They even celebrate the bag’s “birthday.”

So, it’s only logical to think that people would look for news in the same place they would look for Farmville or Windy.

Vinton Today is a new idea. It’s so new that the Iowa Newspaper Association does not yet have a category for online-only newspapers, although other state newspaper associations do recognize that status.

After working in newspapers since the first Bush administration, I have found that in virtually every way, an online newspaper is better. Of course, you cannot roll up the Vinton Today and smack your puppy with it. And it would be impractical to use it to wrap up fragile items or line a bird cage.

The biggest problem, though is that many people who loved to read my articles in the newspapers are senior citizens who have never really used — and in some cases never ever owned — a computer.

So, if you know someone like that — a friend, neighbor, relative, parent or grandparent — do me and them a favor and show them how easy it is to get the news at Vinton Today.