The End of print newspapers
Interesting article on The Atlantic Magazine , about the financial troubles that The New York Times is facing, and discussing the possibility of many newspapers going all digital.
In the end, it’s mostly about what we, as consumers, are willing to pay for news these days, and the answer seems to be… zero, nada. We want it all and we want it for free, oh and we want it now!
The Internet has done much to encourage lazy news consumption, while virtually eradicating the meaningful distinctions among newspaper brands. The story from Beijing that pops up in my Google alert could have come from anywhere. As news resources are stretched and shared, it can often appear anywhere as well: a Los Angeles Times piece will show up in TheWashington Post, or vice versa.
And another article, this time by The New York Times , with the same theme. A revolution is needed in online news media, much the same that happened with music and iTunes.
Is there a way to reverse the broad expectation that information, including content assembled and produced by professionals, should be free? If print wants to perform a cashectomy on users, it should probably look to what happened with music, an industry in which people once paid handsomely for records, then tapes, then CDs, that was overtaken by the expectation that the same product should be free.
Both articles are worth the long read. But what about you? Are you willing to pay for your news online?