In an effort to help describe and explain why people do not read and subscribe to newspapers, a study built on previous research by adding two new contributions: (1) reliance on a four-wave panel data-set rather than on a one-shot survey; and (2) use of a dynamic modeling procedure rather than cross-sectional analysis. The problem with previous studies of newspaper subscribing that use static comparison, is that the technique may be sufficient for descriptive purposes but can do little beyond that. Use of a longitudinal study that links "actual" changes in lifestyles to changes in subscribing status with a four-wave panel data-set solved this problem. A data-set from the American Society of Newspaper Editors' Readership and Research Committee (ASNE) and a dynamic modeling tool developed by Paul Allison were used to supply data. Results indicated that there were two underlying processes going on in the subscribing decision, and that static and dynamic variables played different roles in influencing these processes. Results also showed that the conventional cross-sectional comparison is not sufficient to capture and explain this complexity, whereas dynamic analysis on longitudinal data may improve knowledge of the process. (Twenty-five notes are included, and 10 references are appended.) (MS)