The dying newspaper
May 21st, 2007 by Sterling Hager
Last week, Stanford University and McClatchy Company co-sponsored a free community forum to discuss the fate of the newspaper industry. It was entitled “Pressing Times: Can Newspapers Survive in the New World of Journalism," and at the conclusion it was noted by BeyondChron that at least three out of the four panelists believed that newspapers as we know them will not exist for much longer, but their hope is that what comes will still be a venue for quality journalism, despite the loss of the printed word.
It is no secret that newspapers are dying, the industry is threatened and that the Internet is the cause of it.
Marissa Mayer from Google said that there was room for everyone in Google news, because they are not in the business of doing journalism.
"We are computer scientists, not journalists," she said. Google's aim is to partner with "content providers," a term that made the three other panelists wince, and build a "monetization" model (wince again) with newspapers. Bill Keller of the New York Times leaned towards Mayer hopefully as she described an experiment by Google in which blogs were surreptitiously inserted into the listings of Google News, and readers could immediately tell the difference between "professional journalism" and blog commentary.
But let’s look at the future of online news as it would pertain to newspapers. Increased, highly-targeted online advertising, audio and video to supplement plain text, a 24 hour news cycle, user generated content…all things that are going to be required for our familiar friend that is black and white and read all over.
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Tags: Newspapers, Anti-Establishment, Social Media
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November 20th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
It’s kind of strange I should find your website and see your comment about the printed word dying. My sister and I are in the process of setting up our own consulting firm and in our presentation letter I address this issue. I do not agree that the printed word is dying. Newspapers must think differently now. We have a business model that would work for the newspaper business. My sister and I have over 30 years each experience in the newspaper business. Change is what makes the world go round. The internet is what it is, competition!!! Newspapers can not give up their right to exist in this fast paced media world. I noticed in my area the day after our historial election on November 5th that all the newspaper racks were sold out and I’m sure it was the same way all over the country. The internet can not give people something they can put there hands on and be a part of like a newspaper can, it’s a keepsake. Competition is what makes us better, it keeps us changing. We can never take our readership for granted. The printed word is fundamentally one of the most important ways of communicating in our society. What newspapers communicate is where they can change. I am exicited about what our new company is going to bring to the tables of newspaper businesses who are willing to take a chance and change the way they do business and the services they offer to their readers.