Here’s an interesting little essay about the state of the newspaper world and how the internet is causing major upheavals. It explores various aspects of the crisis, even as North America is suddenly starting to lose some big, established newspapers.
There are some wonderful comparisons with the point in history just after the printing press was introduced, and the immediate societal effects (hint: chaos). New paradigms don’t spring forth fully-fledged, and old ones tend to fall before the new are established.
Historically, newspapers were the most practical way to deliver journalism—that’s the commodity. To defend the printed newsprint itself against a delivery system that is simply more efficient is missing the point of what is happening.
It reminds me of William Gibson’s Bridge Trilogy, specifically All Tomorrow’s Parties, when he speaks of “nodal points” in history: when events and technology come together to change the path of society in some way. The major players of the current day can’t prevent the change; in the end, the new way of working/thinking will likely win out. The question is whether the old players will be left behind, or adapt to the change and somehow retain some measure of their former stature.
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hyedie says:
March 27, 2009 at 11:53 pm (UTC 0)
wow very cool!! now on to read the essay. i want to know how the seemingly benign printing press could wreak societal chaos!!
Laura says:
March 29, 2009 at 3:09 pm (UTC 0)
Newspapers may have been once the most practical way to deliver journalism, but maybe not any more. This article crunched the numbers for printing and delivery costs for the New York Times and suggested that they could buy each of the newspaper’s 830,000 subscribers an Amazon Kindle (retailing for $360 USD) for less than half the cost of printing. This wasn’t meant to suggest that the Kindle or their ilk are necessarily the wave of the future; but only to point out the huge expense of dealing with all the physical material and labour, and that it’s neither cheap or efficient.