Newspapers Crumble

The New York Times graphic department are doing an awesome job lately creating maps to illustrate their news stories. Here's another one! To see it in all of it's glory click here.

“In 2009 and 2010, all the two-newspaper markets will become one-newspaper markets, and you will start to see one-newspaper markets become no-newspaper markets,” said Mike Simonton, a senior director at Fitch Ratings, who analyzes the industry.

Many critics and competitors of newspapers — including online start-ups that have been hailed as the future of journalism — say that no one should welcome their demise.

“It would be a terrible thing for any city for the dominant paper to go under, because that’s who does the bulk of the serious reporting,” said Joel Kramer, former editor and publisher of The Star Tribune and now the editor and chief executive of MinnPost .com, an online news organization in Minneapolis. -- From the NYT

No matter where people get their news, most American's say they can't imagine life without a daily newspaper. Newspaper guilds and unions all over the country are making deals to try to stay in business.

A snapshot, if you will, of the future of America:

People will start wearing a connective device much like those ugly ear buds all the time. Scientists will be able to insert some sort of button on your hand so that when you touch your pinkie and thumb together you are connected to a phone line.

Everyone will wear glasses and companies will start creating glasses that project your stocks, photos of your kids, or favorite blogs on the lenses. No one will be able to make eye contact outside because the lenses will turn into sunglasses for protection. Soon there will be contacts that do the same thing to take over the glasses.

Billboards full of advertising will take over the landscape and driving on I-95 will feel like you're driving through a larger-than-life magazine.

As our eyesight gets worse we will actually have babies who need to wear glasses. Pretty soon everyone will be blind.

Typing and talking in text talk and acronyms will become standard practice and make its way into the dictionary.

All the books will be online so if you want to read to your child you have to get a super duper Kindle or some sort of laptop that looks like a book but is really just screens. Turning pages will be obsolete.

Awesome!

My prediction all along....

I have worked for a national magazine, an industry weekly, a large newspaper, a business website, a smaller newspaper, and a regional magazine. When people ask me the future of newspapers this is what I tell them: I predict that large newspapers like the New York Times, Boston Globe, etc. will, eventually, be online only. Small community weeklies will thrive in print. Why? People love to see their name in print, and most ordinary people wont make the news outside of their community. Parents love to see their kids names and photographs for honor roll and local sports.

There is an alternative community newspaper in Asbury, New Jersey, who has shunned the web and is thriving in spite of, or because of, it. Here's a blurb from the New York Times story:

Finally, a story about a print organization that has found a way to tame the Web and come up with a digital business approach that could serve as a model. Except that TriCityNews of Monmouth County, N.J., is prospering precisely because it aggressively ignores the Web. Its Web site has a little boilerplate about the product and lists ad rates, but nothing more. (The address is trinews.com, for all the good it will do you.)

“Why would I put anything on the Web?” asked Dan Jacobson, the publisher and owner of the newspaper. “I don’t understand how putting content on the Web would do anything but help destroy our paper. Why should we give our readers any incentive whatsoever to not look at our content along with our advertisements, a large number of which are beautiful and cheap full-page ads?”

What TriCityNews has going for it is the fact that they have no competition. People don't look to this paper for breaking news like they would a national newspaper or website.

I think this is the best news I've heard in months. And it validates my newspaper predictions and makes me feel smart.