Print is dead, or so they tell me. Newspapers all over the country are struggling to stay afloat. From the New York Times to the Los Angeles Times, papers are laying off staff at an alarming rate, and not just paperboys and janitors either. Even the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has recently let a lot of folks go. There has been a lot of speculation in the media about why this is happening, and since the dead tree press is eternally tied to politics, I don’t feel out of place taking as swing as to why.
To start with, there’s cost. Yes, 50 cents a day ain’t much, but we blogs are generally free. Therefore, papers are infinitely more expensive than their new media competition. There’s also agility. Blogs can, generally, run a story instantly, where as papers only print once per day. By then, the news is often old to many readers. Why? They read that same information 12 hours earlier on a blog somewhere.
Also, there is potential depth. Blogs and other news oriented websites are only guided by how long they actually want the article to be. Overhead costs are so minimal for this blog as to almost be non-existent, and this gives us a great deal of flexibility in how much we can actually post. Newspapers, on the other hand, are limited by how many column inches are available.
Further, there is the perception of bias, which I personally think is there. However, bias is a natural part of being human. Journalists often try to be unbiased, but fail to varying degrees. Bloggers, on the other hand, have no such compunction and wear their bias on their sleeves proudly for all the world to see. Why should this matter? Because people understand what is what with Republican, Democrat, or Libertarian bloggers outright (as well as any other political party) and adjust accordingly.
Are newspapers in the twilight of their years? Possibly. However, I doubt that this will be the end of the fourth estate in any way. The print media may be about to die, but it won’t be the blow to the journalism industry many seem to think it will be. Newspapers may well be to journalism what buggy whips were to transportation…once vitally necessary, but now relics of the past.
Basically, my advice to newspapers is to dig in, develop a killer web presences, and get ready to rumble. It’s going to be a wild ride!
