Just a quick thought, and I’m quite possibly a little late to this little party, but up until now, it was the internet, blogs and real time news that made me believe newspapers heyday was over.
Walking into Starbucks today, I ordered a coffee and had a peak at the front page of the Guardian newspaper they have arranged on the stand next to the counter. I spotted an article on the front page of the paper, skipping through to the right section, to no surprise, that particular article was in a sealed section of the newspaper.
You can probably guess what I did next. Pulled out my iPhone, typed the name of the article and in a matter of seconds I was reading the same article from the same newspaper online for free.
Lets assume Rupert Murdoch goes ahead and converts all online versions of his papers to subscription based models or any other paid model. Then, we’re back where we are online, with a plethora of other options to enjoy free news.
It is in fact mobile that appears to be the sharpest nail in the newspaper coffin.
Printed newspapers is a thing of the past. There is no way it will survive. Colbert raised an interesting point on this, why would anyone be interested in yesterday’s news ?
Not to mention, its such a waste of resources.
Sure, some news agencies will start to charge for all their content. Those agencies will notice a sharp drop in the number of page views and maybe they will make a few bucks more in subscriptions vs advertisements.
Then reality will set in for them. Someone, somewhere is going to provide it for free. No, I am not talking about pirating the news. I am talking about Reuters and BBC who have both said they will not be charging for online content and welcome the traffic from people looking for an alternative.
Of course this really angers Murdoch. His competitors don’t share his twisted views. Unless he can get everyone to agree with him, his plan is guaranteed to fail.
The post office went through the same thing when email started to become popular. They adapted and survived.
I had a very similar experience a few weeks ago when watching a preview for the 10:00 news. You know, those teasers that ask questions like “Why is this local store being forced to close their doors ? Find out at 10:00″. You won’t find out at 10, you will find out at some point between 10:00p and 11:00p while sitting through tons of commercials. Generally those stories will show up towards the end.
So guess what I did next, same thing you did … searched Google and got my answer in seconds. TV news is in the same type of trouble. Who the hell wants to sit through an hour of talking heads just to get the news.