If there's one thing that never changes, it's that change always happens. Norms, styles, technology, attitudes... like the weather, there's an unpredictable level of chaos that keeps our zeitgeist swirling and transmogrifying. A butterfly flaps its wings in China, and a new medical discovery is announced in the U.S.

If you, dear reader, are wondering what prompted this muse, it was my Washington Post on Sunday. We subscribe to the actual paper because I prefer reading the articles and seeing the pictures in a format that can never be matched by technology on the comfort of my couch (or front porch with a cup of coffee on a lovely spring morning). We also like to keep the people who work the printing presses employed.

Those who live in a market where smaller papers are the norm may not realize this, but newspapers like WaPo and the NY Times have a plethora of extra sections in their Sunday papers. One of the things I've always enjoyed in my Sunday paper is the Washington Post magazine - a glossy, edition of long-form writing and features that don't appear anywhere else. It's been a real jewel in the crown of the paper.

Until now.

This past Sunday was the last issue of the magazine. I expect this is because of the rising cost of producing it, combined with diminishing ad sales and a rise in the online edition. Nonetheless, the features that were part of it are either going away, moving to the newsprint "Arts & Entertainment" section, or available online only. It's a real disappointment.

Change is inevitable, of course, especially with advancements in technology. Typewriter? gone. Horse and buggy? gone. Ice boxes? gone. Film cameras and gasoline engines? Fading fast.

Oh sure - you can find rare instances of these, but they are more of a curiosity and a nod to "remember when?" and other forms of nostalgia. Entire industries have been replaced with newer technology. We haven't had a phone land line in nearly 20 years. Phones themselves are marketed as cameras and "TV"s, with the idea of actually using them to make a phone call and talk on them rarely (if ever) mentioned.

No, I'm not having a "you kids get offa my lawn!" moment... I've embraced most of the technology as a definite improvement on what it replaces. It's just that we've gotten so used to reading news online that we forget that real people have to collect the facts, put them into an intelligible form, double-check the writing grammar and factual veracity, and get it out to the readers. These people deserve to get paid for their work. With modern technology, it's easy to forget the content creators, and much too easy to circumvent the means by which these people do earn that money (confession: I have an ad blocker on my browser for those sites I may only visit once or twice a year when taken their via a link in a story).

What happens when those revenue streams diminish? We lose features, like the Washington Post magazine. It's normal for people to not want to pay for something they aren't using. That forces changes that affects other people who do pay for something, and then end up not getting it because not enough other people are willing to. In some cases, with the advantage of being able to look back in time, we can see the change was for the better.

Not this time, IMHO. RIP Washington Post Magazine