When I was a mere kitten our

state newspaper, "The Advertiser" was a broadsheet. There was also an evening paper called "The News" and a scandalous paper called "The Truth" (think the worst parts of the old "News of the World") and, on Sundays, "The Sunday Mail". The last three were tabloids.
"The Truth" was the first to go. I can't remember when. I never saw a copy in our house. My paternal grandfather called it "absolute rubbish" - and it probably was.
"The News" went next. It was a victim of the early days of what has become the "24 hour" news cycle.
We still have "The Sunday Mail" but I rarely see it as we don't bother to buy it. I remember when we did and we children used to fight over who would be allowed to read "Possum's Pages" first. Those two pages were devoted to children and the "children" ranged from about four to fourteen.
"The Advertiser" is now tabloid size and, the Senior Cat claims, "tabloid in content". He still reads some of it - he claims he reads enough of it for it to be worth getting.
We also have "The Australian", our national newspaper. People seem to love it or hate it - depending on their view of the Murdoch stable I suppose - or, in my case, remain neutral. There is some useful material in there. I read it - but I do not read all of it. I do not have significant investments so I leave the business section largely alone. I am not interested in sport - although there is thankfully less of that. There are columnists I find interesting - even when I do not necessarily agree with them. If we get the paper version the Senior Cat will read it as well. It keeps him informed -up to the point he wishes to be informed.
And now, if I want to be a "news junkie" I can read much more "on-line".  I do read some news on line. I have discovered there is a technique for doing this...headlines and the first paragraph are usually enough.
It all makes me wonder whether we really need news to be available all night as well as all day. It also makes me wonder whether we need all the news we get. Do we need all the gossip that comes with it?
Would we better off with less "news"? The only problem I can see is making sure the Senior Cat has enough news to read while he eats breakfast.