In any case, the birth of television was also supposed to spell the end for newspapers, but 50 years later, they’re still here. The industry will change and lose a lot of its overall revenue, but, hopefully, will still find ways to be profitable. We need the journalistic tradition that newspapers provide. Google News and other search engines only point to newspaper articles, and blogs usually just report others’ stuff or rumors. Newspapers are still performing the investigative journalism that we need (even if there a fewer Woodward and Bernsteins).

It would be interesting to break those out or include that data for comparison.

I pick up a local weekly and also check the website. There’s some overlap in what I’m looking for but I regularly use both. One of the biggest things I’m seeing in my own behavior is that since I have less time for enjoying a print source, the free weekly eats up all the time that I would consider devoting to newspapers.

Books and magazines take up the rest of my print attention. Books tend to be denser and richer sources than newspapers while magazines are more entertaining and sometimes more informative.

For breaking news the web rules.

So the traditional daily is what’s feeling the pain and there’s no reason that should change given that their web attempts generally represent sustaining innovations and they’re getting their rear ends kicked by disruptive approaches like that of Craigslist.

http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

Is there really a good reason why print ads are more valuable to advertisers than online ads? Online ads are more targeted, animated and interactive. Is this evidence that online ads are significantly undervalued? Maybe because online ads make it very easy to see in detail the immediate results whereas the longterm benefits haven’t been understood yet.

And while newspapers ad dollars are in decline those dollars are not moving online. Look at the numbers above…. a $1 billion dollar decline and internet ad dollars are only $773 million? The dollars are moving to other media and internet has yet to prove itself to the big spenders……………….

Just my two cents worth. I agre though it is time that the news industry (which I am part of) restructure and develop - which some of us are doing faster than others.

Enjoy!

Newspapers have always included timeliness as one of their primary sources of value; on that count, they have of course been trumped. Magazines, on the other hand, have an entirely different usage model - hence my comparison question.

Actually, I foresee a consequential danger further down the road. If we only look at the information that interests us, as personalisation technology gets increasingly powerful we’re more and more likely to disappear into our own little knowledge bubbles. It’s as important to be exposed to people and data different to our usual interests as to be able to find ones that fit in. Through exposure to differences comes tolerance.

Hopefully, print is only restructuring. There’s still very much a role for it.

Cheers