The warm light of the morning. The dew still on the grass that needs to be mown some time during the weekend. And the Illawarra Mercury, the local newspaper which is still wrapped in plastic and thrown onto the lawn by the local newsagent in the small hours of the morning. Yes, there are digital versions of the paper; both web and tablet, as well as a digital version of the printed paper itself (kinda sorta like a .pdf, but it isn't).

But in the regions change hastens slowly. Newsagency deliveries to places like the big city suburban one that I moved from the year before last are largely extinct. People may still buy newspapers now and then but having one thrown over your fence each morning is a rarity, in part because people leave for work early, in part because the increase in housing density means that not everyone has a yard to throw one into.

For now, though, the Mercury in its printed form is still part of the social fabric of the region. That will change too. Indeed, it already is, since in Australia regional newspapers are now starting to feel the changes that their metro cousins felt 5 to 10 years ago. But it hasn't changed yet, so this is still a classic Saturday morning in NSW's third largest city.