I've been a newspaper carrier off and on for the past 15 years. When I first began, I delivered the nightly edition of the AJC. More houses received the paper than not. Then, the AJC killed the morning edition and combined the two. Still, more people received the paper than not. Now I deliver a supplemental to the AJC, delivering to each address of people who don't take the paper. In the past year alone, my route has grown from 1400 papers to over 1800 papers.
The cost of the newspaper has almost doubled lately, the width of the print area has shrank, and the articles are all written for a liberal readership in an area of the country hugely conservative. And, the final blow for the paper is that every word of it is online - free.
The age of newspapers and books will end with the end of a generation of readers who must have the feel of paper in their hands to receive information. This is a dieing breed of people as schools churn out hoards of people accustomed to the internet for new and information.
I am very strongly biased in favor of print media. I have never read a book online and, God willing, I never will have to. It hurts my eyes, and to me (frankly) the sensuality of physical books are such that the following word analogy applies for me:
printed books are to books online as real sex is to phone sex
I believe that the printed forms of transient information such as daily news will very soon disappear. Anything timeless, anything worth saving for the ages, will continue to appear in print, albeit at a price premium.
An example in an area I've followed for 25 years (female bodybuilding) may be instructive. From the late 1970s until 2006, there was an excellent quarterly print magazine called Women's Physique World. It's photography and interviews with the athletes were timeless, but its contest coverage ran approximately 9 months behind. There has been an explosion (as in other areas) of internet sites for fans of female bodybuilding. Any transient news can be got there the same day of an event, often with the
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I don't really read print newspapers anymore, except for really local stuff (the free community newspaper). They seem like a waste of paper if they're all about national and international news. I would die in a world without printed books, however. Reading online just isn't the same. For one thing, the kind of attention span it takes to read a book, I just can't hold when I'm trying to read a PDF file on my computer. It takes the seduction and feel of paper and ink to mesmerize me into reading anything over 20 pages. A world without books would become a world without anything longer than 20 pages, and that would be a very shallow world . . .
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The cost of the newspaper has almost doubled lately, the width of the print area has shrank, and the articles are all written for a liberal readership in an area of the country hugely conservative. And, the final blow for the paper is that every word of it is online - free.
The age of newspapers and books will end with the end of a generation of readers who must have the feel of paper in their hands to receive information. This is a dieing breed of people as schools churn out hoards of people accustomed to the internet for new and information.
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printed books are to books online as real sex is to phone sex
I believe that the printed forms of transient information such as daily news will very soon disappear. Anything timeless, anything worth saving for the ages, will continue to appear in print, albeit at a price premium.
An example in an area I've followed for 25 years (female bodybuilding) may be instructive. From the late 1970s until 2006, there was an excellent quarterly print magazine called Women's Physique World. It's photography and interviews with the athletes were timeless, but its contest coverage ran approximately 9 months behind. There has been an explosion (as in other areas) of internet sites for fans of female bodybuilding. Any transient news can be got there the same day of an event, often with the ( ... )
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