As we move further into a global community, that might not be a bad thing, but I will miss it. I think Molly Wood is right — newspapers will be around longer than we think, if only because the Baby Boomers, and to a lesser extent, Generation X, will hang on to it. But the business model has to change if newspapers are to survive the coming decades. They need to build community in the same way that Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace have, and they need to find new ways to monetize their content (it was pointed out in the Alterman article that Craigslist has taken away they primary monetary gain to newspapers — classified ads).
Like everything else in the world, news has to become less passive and more dynamic and interactive if it is to survive. Bloggers, Twitterers, and Diggers are not journalists (well, some are, but the vast majority are not because we lack access), but they have all hit on the fact that people prefer talking about the news, rather than just reading it. I'll end with Molly Wood's comments about the Internet from TWiT: "...I think that the Internet and the World Wide Web are the greatest thing that humanity has ever accomplished. I mean not to wax a little melodramatic, but it's phenomenal the amount of information that we can access and that people can access; really disenfranchised people can access. So when it comes right down to it, the quality will sort itself out. The fact that that information is there at all is kind of a modern miracle."
Article comments
1 - Karen Rice
The only reason I buy a newspaper is for local news, which doesn't get on the local newspaper website very often or in a timely fashion; and then I buy it only if there is something controversial which may be good blog fodder (not much chance of that, this is a non controversial community, for the most part.)
Sometimes I buy the Sunday paper to curl up with on the couch and have a cuppa java with it...you just don't get that same feeling with a laptop.
2 - Dan Miller
We live in a rural area in Panama, where it is difficult to find even a Spanish language newspaper, let alone one in English. So, I rely on the internet, through which I can get Panamanian national newspapers translated into English (not well, but better than my own translations). The various mainstream U.S. sources are readily available, and sources such as Breitbart.com provide links to lots more. Everything is out there, and all that is necessary is to look. I don't miss newspapers much at all.
There is, regretfully, one exception: there is no way to housebreak a puppy via the internet.
Dan Miller
3 - Douglas Mays
Newsprint dying? hhhmmm...I hope not. Newspapers and books are nice and quiet. And a much better way to gather a lot of news. Not being micro-thought limited to links on a selected subject. One misses a bunch of news that way.
The main reason for me is that ARE YOU KIDDING? Staring at some damn screen as a window to the world? Carrying a laptop as a newspaper?
It keeps one from becoming 'screened out' by reading off of newsprint. Those who complain about trees being cut down for paper, Uh yes, but generally trees are not cut down specifically for paper. Paper comes from shaving made from logs cut for construction purposes.
Anyway, the newspaper rules. Reading comics off of some bright screen? Try hanging one on your corkboard.
DM