Newspapers: Evolution, Not Death

Start saying your goodbyes to print editions of newspapers. The Christian Science Monitor was the first to shut down its presses. Now the Detroit Free Press is considering scaling back home delivery to Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays only. The Tribune Company is filing for bankruptcy.

The ever-rising cost of newsprint, the logistics of delivering papers fast and fresh, the clunkiness of broadsheet and tabloids, and the need to save trees have been industry hurdles for years. When the Internet became a part of our collective lives, pundits predicted the demise of newspapers.

But objectors cited practical objections: how else will I read the news on the train? Can I fit a PC it in my briefcase? Can I read it in the bathroom? These points silenced the doomsayers for awhile. Sure, there was a little drop off in readership, a little slip in advertising. But the answers to the big three questions remained No.

Today, ten years after the Internet entered our lives, the PC has given way to the laptop. The laptop is giving way to SmartPhones. SmartPhones, I predict will be the true demise of printed newspapers. Like Green Eggs and Ham, you can read them on the train, you can take them on a plane, and you can bring them in the can.

The nation's newspapers large and small, will live online and we will still call them newspapers. To me, nytimes.com is still The New York Times. (But should I still italicize it?) While the online version of your local newspaper has more bells and whistles than the easier-to-fold-than-a-map-but-just-barely variety, society will lose something when newspaper presses shut down.

As always, Jon Stewart of The Daily Show put it best.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

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Barack Obama Interview
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Think about what will go away: the tradition of saving special editions of the newspaper, like when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, when Kennedy was assassinated or when Barack Obama was elected president. People won't bother to print these pages out and save them for their grandchildren or sell them on ebay.

How will kidnappers proved a hostage is still alive, unless the victim can hold up a copy of today's newspaper? Do people still line bird cages? Will we miss the black ink on our hands?