Posted on 01/01/2009 5:32:31 AM PST by abb
Surpassed in convenience and economy by online content, printed magazines and newspapers will dry up in the next decade. Pro or con?
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Pro: Disappearing Ink
by Jeff Jarvis, Buzzmachine.com
Whether or not print dies, its business model will. Physical waresnewspapers, books, magazines, discswill no longer be the primary or most profitable means of delivering and interacting with media: news, fact, entertainment, or education.
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Con: The Power of Print
by Chris Tolles, Topix
Given that I run an online-only news site here in Silicon Valley, youd think Id be arguing that print is already dead.
But the technology business teaches you that nothing ever goes away completely. Mainframes, Fortran, and paper all survive, despite PCs, Java, and the paperless office.
Whats really changing is the role of content itself.
Online, its participation that becomes the product, with the content merely an ingredient of the real product. And print becomes a great vehicle to promote that new, experiential online product.
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(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...
Yes. This is why a government bailout for the Drive-By Media makes no sense. The Drive-Bys have given Organized Government free PR forever.
The Washington Times has an offer now at a local supermarket (Shoppers). $3.25 a month, delivered 6 days a week. First 3 months are free because you get a $10 Shoppers gift card when you sign up.
I wouldn’t read the Wapo, even if it’s free, but I’ll read the Washington Times.
Magazines will follow. Outdoor mag’s prop up their “readership” by sending free copies to companies like ours. We are in the outdoor business and we don’t read any of the rag’s we’re sent because they too are filled with stories about products that are proven “Duds”. As lifelong outdoorsmen & women we know and test what works and 95% of the articles are written to help a mfg dump a bad line.
Print media is dying because the internet is exposing their blanket deceptions at “no charge”.
Please tell me when!
Best regards,
Now that the new year is upon us, perhaps it is time to retire the hyena and vultures pics and see if we can come up with something new as our official signature for 2009. FReepers can post their entries on this thread...
“...will dry up in the next decade”.
DECADE!!!??? The fall started long, long ago and is now in it’s terminal stage. I’d bet that the NYT doesn’t have 2 years unassisted.
Killing trees for lies is dead.
Ooops
The core principal of most Dinosaur Fish Wraps: "BETTER RED AND DEAD THAN READ!"
That is a great picture.
Tubebender and I have posting observations and articles about how the Frisco GayRhonicle and the Portlant Pravada/Oregonian are no longer even selling their trash or delivering it in NW California and SW Oregon.
A decade ago, grocery and drug stores in those areas would have massive stacks of these worthless fishwraps inside and in the racks outside. Home delivery of these worthless fishwraps was common.
After the 2004 election, the massive stacks of Sunday Papers inside those stores have basically disappeared. Maybe a Newspaper Box outside was/is still there. At first weekday home deliveries were cancelled and then the Sunday deliveries.
A good friend of mine emailed me the other day and said the New Orleans Times-Picayune is stopping delivery in Baton Rouge. They’ve not announced it publicly, but I’ll watch for the article when it comes out.
“A good friend of mine emailed me the other day and said the New Orleans Times-Picayune is stopping delivery in Baton Rouge. Theyve not announced it publicly, but Ill watch for the article when it comes out.”
A friend, who opted out of the fishwrap scams, decades ago, said that advertisers were really looking at the real stats re subscriptions and news racks sells, like where are those subscriptions and news racks.
She noted that if your business was in San Francisco and a little in the north Bay area, paying $’s for total circulation sales with ads going to Ukiah, Willets, Eureka and Crescent subscriptions/news rack sales didn’t help your local business.
So this was a little dirty secret the Fishwraps around America had. So they subsidized the costs of shipping the fishwraps in some cases hundreds of miles to get their circulation and news rack sales up or just to maintain them.
Enter the rising gasoline/diesel prices the past 3-4 years until the recent downturn. Their long range deliveries became another daily/weekly/monthly/yearly cost drag. So those subsidized deliveries are being cancelled across the country.
The internet of course has minimalized any real need for a newspaper printed hundreds of miles away and delivered hours if not a day later with the end consumer.
As are the libs.
Lee Enterprises is owner of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
http://www.fitzandjen.com/2008/12/no-champagne-in-davenport-as-lee-swings-to-879-million-08-loss-on-billionplus-goodwill-writeoff.html
No Champagne In Davenport As Lee Swings To $879 Million 08 Loss On Billion-Plus Goodwill Write-Off
Think of all the trees that will be saved. The libs must be ecstatic! Wait, they’re not?
I forgot about those! They used to have stacks and stacks of the Chicago Tribune for purchase. When I moved to AZ, it was the Republic. No more! Good riddance.
I just got my PC Magazine in the mail. There was an announcement that after 27 years oof publishing they were shutting down their print magazine and going digital-only.
I’m really sad...I’ve read that magazine almost continuosly these many years, and they are no more.
And here near Klamath Falls, Oregon, a local newspaper announced they won’t be printing on Mondays.
I personally find the whole thing sad, except for the uber-liberal papers. I love reading newspapers and have read between three to five per day for decades, and sorry, but reading them on-line is nothing like reading them in newsprint.
Ed
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