2008 19
The end of the newspaper era (at least for me)
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Micro with No Comments
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Today as I was walking out of the offices in my holding company, I saw a pile of unread newspapers and made the decision. Yes, that decision, the decision that I have been wanting to make for 10 years and for some reason, probably nostalgia, had not made. The decision to cancel all newspapers subscription, the end of the newspaper era for me. I canceled them all. I know it´s sad that I won´t get the International Herald Tribune anymore, nor the Financial Times, Expansión, El País, El Mundo, the WSJ. But why should I go on getting them if I get all my news online? At least I will save a few trees. So long newspapers, it was good while it lasted.
PS here´s a good article on how the newspaper industry in the States is doing online.
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jac on December 19, 2008 ·
There are locations in everyday life where you can not use easily an internet media (toilet, bathrom, no-wifi place, …) but where reading a real newspaper is a pleasure 😉
Thomas Crampton on December 25, 2008 ·
Martin,
I fully understand your stance.
As someone who spent my entire adult life working in newspapers (IHT for much of it!) I truly do have newspaper ink running in my veins.
I did notice the other day, however, that I have not purchased the IHT since I stopped working there 18 months ago.
This was not an explicit decision, but something that I just noticed a few weeks ago. Upon noticing it, I made the decision that I would never again buy the paper.
While this is good for trees, I do fear for the future of democracy and open government: Can open society survive without the pillar of brave and critical investigative journalism?
In the coming years we will find out.
Martin Varsavsky on December 25, 2008 ·
Thanks for your comment Tom. While I am sure that a business model must be found to deliver high quality news and blogging alone is not it I am not sure that that model must include paper. In any case I imagine that newspapers will not vanish. They will shrink in asymptotic mode, first fast, then slowly, never completely.
Thomas Crampton on December 26, 2008 ·
Martin,
Yes, I agree that newspapers will fade fast and then remain there for a good long time.
My current model for the future of newspapers is a free daily edition distributed in public places (mass transit, coffee shops) and supported by advertising.
On the weekends, however, there is a premium value newspaper that is more magazine-like and glossy. This one costs five or six dollars and people buy it to read in leisure.
Sean on December 31, 2008 ·
When I left my job at a big investment bank two years ago, it was just the catalyst to shed the incredible number of print subscriptions I had accumulated over the years (and up the hierarchy!) I thought about re-subscribing but inertia and a sabbatical gave me time to realize that I didn’t miss them and that I got all the day-to-day information I needed (more actually) from my feed-reader (netvibes) and didn’t even miss Bloomberg 99% of the time (thanks to Google Finance etc.)
However, the one area where I remain a fervent print subscriber (and hybrid print/online consumer) is in magazines. The Economist which is a highlight of my week when it arrives on Friday, Fortune (to stay on top of US zeitgeist) and more irregularly (usually having seen an interesting article online) publications like Prospect, Scientific American, Forbes, etc…
I like the UI of magazines and hope they stick around for awhile. At least until I get comfortable with the idea of a Kindle…
polac on January 20, 2009 ·
I took the same decision two years ago. And I am steel being a “paper addict”. Yes, right now, our cultural tendencies are in a more news- less printed paper use direction, but don´t you think we are getting a front page reader habits? Getting a superficial approach of news. Loosing in knowledge.
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Teemu on December 19, 2008 ·
I assume most people agree that reading is important. Having reading material around them makes people to read. If a newspaper today is offering only news and adds it is not worth of much. A text on paper is still nice – especially if printed on a a good paper. Until we have as good interface for reading as paper is, there is market for quality magazines and journals (whatever the content is something that is also available online). For this reason I would like to see some of the quality newspapers becoming weekly or monthly magazines with more investigative journalism. We need it.