Unbelievable, Inexplicable!

Who would have thought that there would be so many foreign-language newspapers in a city in which 40 percent of its residents are foreign born? The New York Times! No, really:

Near the back of a garment district bookstore and gallery, the paintings on exhibit are blocked in part by newspaper pages taped to an overhang. The pages are not on exhibit, but they will soon be seen by many as part of the redesigned Nowy Dziennik, the Polish-language daily newspaper whose offices occupy several floors in the same modest building.

“We are trying to make it more appealing to young people,” said Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska, a reporter at the paper. “We have competition here, surprisingly. There are three Polish daily papers in New York.”

Many New Yorkers had no idea there was even one, much less three. For that matter, who would have imagined that there are 26 ethnic daily newspapers in New York that keep immigrants in touch with their homelands while educating them on how to survive in their adopted one?