Thought this was an interesting comment from the publisher of the N.Y. Times:

>>>Given the constant erosion of the printed press, do you see the New York Times still being printed in five years?

"I really don't know whether we'll be printing the Times in five years, and you know what? I don't care either," he says.

Sulzberger is focusing on how to best manage the transition from print to Internet.<<<

My prediction is more and more newspapers will start charging for internet content. Enjoy it while it is still free!

In a sense they do charge now. Maybe not monetarily, but a lot of the newspapers make you register with your email address.

I'd bet a good steak dinner that they sell their email lists. Maybe to a "select group of advertisers" as their privacy policies say, but expect your spam filter to be busy soon after registering.

I used to use joeblow@12345.com to register at these sites, but they have gotten smart and now send an email to you with a link in it to complete the registration. Bummer!

I only will register on a site that does not use your email for anything other than the registration.

Another option is to have a dedicated email address specifically for these kind of registrations. You only use it when registering. Then let it load up with spam, who cares?

Edselehr, good point. I didn't think of that.

I could use my @comcast.net email account that I never have used and have their spam filter set to reject all except email address I enter. (And I haven't entered any!)

Thanks for the suggestion, I might just do that!

The entire concept of the newspaper is obsolete. As I watch out my front window in the morning, seeing this big suburban driving slowly through the deep snow, with two kids grabbing folded papers off the back tailgate and taking them up to the doorsteps, I can only think of how out of touch with the 21st century this method of delivering news and ads is.

I know a member of the board of a large metro newspaper and newspaper ownership is scared to death of the future, or the lack of it. They know it's going to go internet, but they have no idea how to make the big money with internet delivery.

I like the portablity of my paper every now and then. Same goes for my Mad Magazine and Rolling Stone. I understand the iternet just fine and use that to catch headlines on Yahoo or CNN or KATU - but I'm not going to lug my laptop to the bathroom...at least not since the accident.

Print material is dying media wide. Student's are becoming functionally illiterate. Internet use skyrocket's to new height's. Anyone see a connection here besides me? I will never again complain to my daughter for all of the overdue library notice's I pack in from the mailbox! She reads 50 plus books per month on average! Hootie Hoot to That!

"My prediction is more and more newspapers will start charging for internet content. Enjoy it while it is still free!"

This is true. Something that went from a penny to just under two bucks a day in a little over a century is no longer a bargain without the internet.

With the move away from print, the entire cost structure changes. One could argue, for the better. It could allow for the investment in better coverage, more comprehensive research and a higher level of competition between sources. News in print already has a chance to trump the airwaves on a scoop by using an alert to your e-mail box. (Unless you hate spam too.)

A small town paper with great content in a wired small town is still going to sell advertising. The days of wired small towns are coming quick enough for this to work with some old fashioned ingenuity. It also opens the window for the world to peek inside a community. That seldom hurts tourism or investment, unless you have a scary town.

Bigger independent papers will no longer be paying for boxes on the corner, delivery boys and printers, this is true, but if the savings means that they can afford to hire and keep the very best journalists, it is a win-win for the subscriber.

The biggest papers are owned by huge media companies. They will either charge a fee and keep the -- already token -- mastheads alive or absorb the talent into producing content for their radio and television news empires. If better, more savvy independent outlets can afford them, the best writers would probably have an exodus.

I always hate to see jobs disappear. The only redeeming part I can see is the potential for media to become more diverse through competition. If we learn more in a streamlined way, we win. If it turns into something more expensive than a paper boy taking out a window every week, we lose.

What I find interesting is that many advertisers are still using printed newspapers, but they seem to be more and more trending toward upper demographics, a sure sign the end is near.

I alway have believed that there is a certain audience that wants that tangible "news in their hand" feeling, but I may need to re-evaluate that opinion. (Despite Chickenjuggler's hilarious description of needing to take the paper into the bathroom due to the accident. LOL.)

Why do consumers buy printed papers today? I have two theories. 1) They like to get the coupons, and 2) it's a great thing to have with you when you are alone in an airport, airplane or restaurant. Other than that, not sure what they really offer.

Redford, The printed paper is great for starting the BBQ if you have one of the charcoal chimneys!

It also works great as packing for the stuff I sell on eBay!

Redford--

Your two theories are PRECISELY why I buy newspapers! (Golden Hours sometimes annoys the other customers at Shari's, so that's why I always pay a visit to the Columbian box just inside the front door.)

That, and the "tangible news in your hand" concept. Seems a lot more inviting to me to have something that's actually *there*, rather than just being shown to me on a terminal screen. If nothing else, if I absolutely *have* to have it off the network, I just print it out and read it that way. At least I don't get as much of a headache from looking at printed pages as I do staring at this @$#%#*&$#ing LCD for hours on end.......

That's also exactly why I buy (and thus, record) CDs instead of downloading music, but that's a whole different kettle of worms I'll save for another time/thread!

I put the political news in the bottom of the cage for the bird to CRAP on! LOL

DUByah facing upwards....LOL

while redford and deane are yakking about a "dead" format, a couple hundred thousand people still subscribe to The O. Are we dead or something?

Newspaper reading never included most of the population even during its heyday. The entire population of Generation X has to die off before papered news goes away completely, and then, only maybe.

Going to have to disagree, Skeptical. Printed newspaper readership is DOWN almost everywhere. And it keeps falling every year. And then you have the NY Times publisher saying he doesn't know if they will be printing in five years...I think the writing is on the wall. No pun intended.

I agree, newspaper readership IS down. But so is the listenership of AM radio from the 30's and 40's right? But there are still listeners today.

I know I'm a paying subscriber and will PAY for a delivered newspaper for the next 40 years. Likely there are many of us and its doubtful media outlets are gonna ignore this source of cash anytime soon.

I don't subscribe to a newspaper at my place (can't afford it right now! But my folks do at home) but like I said, I do buy a paper occasionally when I am out.

Or maybe this way--on my way to work I listen to the readings of the Oregonian on Golden Hours (driving and reading a paper at the same time can be a little dangerous...) Could this, in some odd distorted sense or other, be thought of as some sort of "subscription"?

Skeptical, highly agreed. Yes, readership and subscriptions to print newspapers may be down quite a bit now from what they were in history, but I highly doubt print newspapers will ever go away completely....they possibly might just become a bit obscure, like AM has somewhat become in an FMed world. And look at vinyl....people thought CDs would completely displace vinyl, in both usage and manufacture. So why are most of the major labels still pressing records, and why do I still see new releases on vinyl occasionally at Sam Goody's?

Like with digital downloads (online newspapers) vs. tangible items (print papers,) people are going to want something they know is there, existing with them in physical and temporal space! Which is why we have records, or print newspapers. (A sense digital copies certainly can't bring. They exist in virtual space, so just because you see it on the computer doesn't necessarily mean it's *there*. Meanwhile newspapers exist in physical space, and they exist in time, so they *are* there.)

What? It's just simple quantum physics........

>>>"I know I'm a paying subscriber and will PAY for a delivered newspaper for the next 40 years."

Not likely. Costs vs. readership will bring them all down at some point. That time is closer than you think. There will be nothing for you to pay for.

"So why are most of the major labels still pressing records, and why do I still see new releases on vinyl occasionally at Sam Goody's?"

The AES has a lot of information on this, but it boils down to analog sounding better than bits and bytes. Google "Walter Sear" for more.

Newspapers do not degrade by being on a screen rather than on reconstituted trees, so I think that it is mostly an emotional issue related to the tradition and feel of a paper in your hands.

I do love reading a newspaper. I wonder how dogs will be potty trained without them in the future. Maybe we will swat them with our laptops.

For me, it's pure usability and endurance. Digital stuff is fickle. It changes without us knowing it, can be gone in the same manner, takes expensive devices to consume, problematic to manupulate and use, etc...

Paper is awesome. I've lost the digital works I did as a kid. (Well nearly all of them anyway) They are lost because tech changed, media degraded, etc...

However my paper works are still in a folder, perfectly usable today.

Until that changes, we will still have paper media. We won't have as much of it, and it will cost more, but it will still be around.

Littlesongs:
"Newspapers do not degrade by being on a screen rather than on reconstituted trees, so I think that it is mostly an emotional issue related to the tradition and feel of a paper in your hands."

and Missing, on his above post--

That's PRECISELY my case here! Substance and longevity!!

Dang ZAK....you'll need to find a new line of work when they take away your paper route and just publish to the WEB. LOL
No more Moto paper boy flinging papers on your roof and leaving bike skids all over your front lawn! LMAO

Hey, I think I already got that one well covered!! I don't even have a paper route any more......used to deliver the Columbian's now-defunct "Mid-Week" when I was a bit younger tho.......that is, ages before I discovered the merits of working odd hours in an office, and a side job at the Red Robin on weekends (when I now might otherwise just waste my life in front of the TV.....or the computer...........)

But when I used to do the run on my old Murray years ago (R.I.P., she was a good bike....) my credo was either "get outta my way or become one with the pavement!!"

So aside from not being on the paper route for just over a decade now, seems things really haven't changed much over the years............. ;o)

Damn Internet....taking my job away from me.............

And oh yeah, those old bike skids are still all over my front lawn from when I used to practice my double backflips...eat your heart out, Travis Pastrana....... *laughs*

"I've lost the digital works I did as a kid. (Well nearly all of them anyway) They are lost because tech changed, media degraded, etc..."

Me too. My friends and I slaved for years to recreate elements of Asteroids and later Tron in BASIC, but now I have no Pet or TRS-80 with a drive for my cassette tape. All of our hard work in LOGO is toast too.

I agree that paper is a decent archival medium, but fire, water and just plain "forgetting where you put it" are common enemies to both.

Always print your source code.

Started that habit late in High School. It's paid off several times.

Same goes for writing, songs, any creative work...

Turns out you can always get an emulator, similar device, etc... to rebuild and continue to explore the idea at a later time.

Good advice. I'd be screwed without my journals.