What are/were? the newspapers?

'Papa, What Are The Newspapers?'
I rather like this poetical summary of the Victorian press.
- Rare Bits (1882) pic.twitter.com/WxynXMYv5Q

— Dr Bob Nicholson (@DigiVictorian) September 23, 2018

* The poem was published in 'The New York Saturday Press' - 27th August, 1859
* The poem was published in 'The Golden Age' - Queenbeyan, NSW - Thursday 20th August, 1863
* The Taranaki Herald (where this poem appeared in 1868 - Volume XVI, Issue 851, 14th November, 1868) was an afternoon daily newspaper, published in New Plymouth, New Zealand. It began publishing as a four-page tabloid on 4 August 1852. Until it ceased publication in 1989, it was the oldest daily newspaper in the country.
*The poem was published in 'The Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette' - Saturday 24th November, 1877

The poem is consistently inserted, in each newspaper, midst columns of news.

Have we lost a certain intimate style of reporting, in our haste to be digitally progressive?