I thought it had been fixed, too, but I guess it broke again. I'd never seen them do either of these things before. They used to walk to the furthest chair to read the paper. I had one go upstairs and stand in the middle of the nursery to read it.
Another thing that I think was fixed in the 1.7 patch (or JM did it) was the maids, they actually worked for a change, now they don't again and the repairmen just stands around thinking about what is broken but never enter the house to fix anything.
ETA: brownlustgirl, it would make much more sense to read the newspaper on the toilet than eat dinner there! Sitting on the tub to read the paper would only make sense if you were reading something to someone in the tub.