It's not clear as to how "newspapers" ( an increasingly less popular medium of news dissemination) can possibly relate to a rather vague, highly complex human phenomenon of being "Happy".

Happiness could be (but not limited to) related to a seemingly endless matrix of things: states of mind, associations with people, upbringing, professional and personal networks, desires, expectations, and the results of our actions.

Newspapers are just a medium of information which is waning in popularity with online publications, social media, etc.

Attempting to specifically answer your question, however, reading less newspaper can still keep you happy, in a vague sense:

• According to a research conducted by readership.org among the various groups of newspaper readers, Generation X and Y (young readers below the age of 40) find newspapers to be a disengaged medium where they find that they don't relate to the stories much. They are also less likely to read about people they can identify with. If you are young, you might not really find newspaper reading a ''fruitful" experience.
• Reading newspapers -- especially the bad news -- can be depressing outright. Who wants that sort of depressing news everyday filled with killings, murder, wars, political agenda, and all those games people play?
• When there are alternatives such as books, would NOT reading newspapers really hurt?

As for the need to stay abreast of the news, there's no dearth of sources for it. Is there?