There's been a lot of talk lately about the imminent demise of the print media. With the economy in the toilet, subscriber bases shrinking, advertising rates declining, and demographic shift moving many publications' readers ever-older with no younger readers to replace them, it's looking grim. Some cities will be losing their only daily newspaper. Even the New York Times is in danger of going bankrupt. Even with advertising rates putting pressure on net-based publications, online publishing is here to stay. Is there room in this world for printed tech publications?
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Member since:
2006-08-16
Member since:1997-10-01
Something similar happened in the tech media. It didn't have anything to do with political slant, but during the eighties and nineties, there was a lot of consolidation of tech magazines into a few big media conglomerates. I think it's possible that this consolidation made the various tech magazines too-similar and also hindered them in being able to change quickly enough to stay relevant.
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2005-11-13
Member since:2008-12-21
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2005-11-05
Anything ephemeral or non-essential is at risk in times like these because it is the easiest to cut back on. Imho, traditional newspapers and tech publications will eventually have to go far, far upmarket to survive. The net does basic news, reviews and instant opinionating (blogs, e.g.) far better than print, so in order to get anyone to actually buy your printed publication you are going to have to offer sophisticated, thoughtful opinions by seriously well qualified people and essays so detailed they could almost be papers.
Everything else - the moron stuff involving paparazzi, cheapo sports reporting and showbiz - will morph into freesheets and crappy websites. Since those upmarket publications will have relatively small markets, the whole traditional print/news industry will vanish too, I suppose.
I don't see books going West, though. I think people have a hunger for story-telling and connectedness that is almost a primal instinct, and so essential. No one has yet invented anything that does it better, though the medium may well change in the next couple of decades with much better (and affordable) electronic books and print-on-demand for those who still want paper.
Member since:2005-10-21
Member since:
2005-07-01
What I'll miss about the old publications is their isolation. A single journalist would write a long article on his own and it would be published in solitary glory. The thinking of one man presented for your consideration. Maybe in a month, there'll be one or two letters on the subject of sufficient quality to print. Or maybe not.
These days every article is linked to half a dozen other articles about the same thing. And at the end you get endless, witless comments from dumb bastards like me, who pick the article apart or just shout their own tangential passions.
And then there's advertising. At least with magazines, adverts don't appear magically from the very words of the article. At least they weren't animated.
Navigation of a magazine was good too. You didn't need to surround every article with information about what else the magazine had to offer, because the reader had the very pages in his hands. You knew there was other stuff in there and you knew how to find it.
Oh, and magazines had better graphics.
Yes, there's a lot to be said for the old media when you think about it.
Member since:2007-11-23
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2006-11-01
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2005-07-06
Magazines and newspapers is still where the quality is. I read a fair number of blogs and other online news sources and I've yet to see anything which comes even close to matching the quality of the better articles in for example the Economist or the Financial Times. The quality of the writing and the level of journalism is atrocious on far too many blogs.
That is not to say all print is better than all online sources, far from it. There are far too many magazines and newspapers out there that are shit. They will and should go bankrupt. I hope there is a special place in hell for people who publish magazines who's articles consist of little more then press releases and advertising copy from their advertisers.
Still I actually find myself buying and reading more magazines and newspapers today than I did 3-4 years ago. The meteoric rise of blogs and similar sites has demonstrated very clearly how hard truly great journalistic writing is and how few are really good at it. I for one am more than happy to pay the few people who still know how to write really well.
Member since:
2005-12-07
I say good riddance. Modern print media isn't succeeding precisely because it isn't providing what people want. Let it die a natural death and let something else fill the void, that's how society evolves.
Pretty much all print media projects a liberal point of view anyhow. People can't relate, therefore they don't buy. Provide something fresh and more ideologically balanced and you might have a chance.
Member since:2005-07-22
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2007-03-20
Hmmm, thats odd. I work as a desktop publisher for a local newspaper in west michigan and we've seen a steady increase in sales and circulation in the last 11 months. How strange.
Must have something to do with having competent writers and editors who actually make the local community's input a priority in the publication. That and not being owned by a larger company that just wants to slap AP drivel on a page and call it news.