This is an entirely fair post. However I do contribute - I buy physical newspapers - partly for the written word and partly because we need to have the paper to light the stove in winter. She Who Must be Obeyed has an online subscription to a newspaper - not necessarily the same one. The question is quite right and I hadn’t considered it from that perspective. Food for thought.

As it happens I think that whilst I am right to be at least a little jaundiced about journalists I am also cynical about the readers as well.

The thing that brought it home to me was reading the reviews of a travel boom prior to buying it. The book was “Way To Go” by Geoff Hill and there were people complaining about the lack of detail about the bike, the mechanics of it and how the author revelled in their lack of experience - well guess what dear reader, if you can stretch a motorcycle review to 240 pages then you need to sharpen your style somewhat and be somewhat briefer in your assessment. I want a motorcycle travel book to be a read about the journey from a motorcyclist’s perspective, not lots of detail about the gear ratio difference between third and fourth, fire me up about the journey, inspire me, and enough detail for me fill in the gaps in my head.

__________________
You will have to do without pocket handkerchiefs, and a great many other things, before we reach our journey's end, Bilbo Baggins. You were born to the rolling hills and little rivers of the Shire, but home is now behind you. The world is ahead.