 POSTED BY Michael Hoffman FEB 5, 2008 |
New York Times Deathwatch I wrote recently about the decline of newspapers and the rise of the web. Marc Andreessen, the founder of Netscape, Ning and an internet thinker (and billionaire), wrote a post today on his blog called Inaugurating the New York Times Deathwatch. Reading it you get the sense that these folks just won’t face the music. Their business model is near death and they better move faster to preserve whatever value they still have. He shows vividly how the New York Times business has eroded, how their ad revenues are way down, circulation is down, etc. He makes fun of The Boston Globe’s (owned by the NY Times) decision to raise prices: “When you have an obsolete, inconvenient physical product that nobody wants in an era of universal online access, the appropriate strategy is clearly to raise the price.” He says “Sometimes it’s darkest right before it’s pitch black.” The punchline is this:
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Gentlemen:
So, I read the above “blog” and once again I see the dot com generation has bought in to the strategy of trying to discredit a worthy element in our world by decrying it relevance, etc. So, allow me a brief rebuttal. I, for one – and we are many – still prefer the written page of print and, while I do scan several newspapers daily, I am more apt to l;ook at a print edition that a screen.
And as to credibility, I suggest the authors of the above take a a more critical look around in cyberspace. There is as much, if not more misrepresentation of events, strategic deleting of facts and reliance on hear say ( closer to tabloid journalism ) presented to the public shown on line. So, when I want to relax and deal with the world on my terms and at my pace, I sit back with my coffee, my pipe and my New York Times – all the news that’s fit to print. And I can be anywhere, not having to rely on outlets or wifi locations!
Michael, thank you for your reply. I also like to curl up with my paper and I think it will be a while before it is totally gone. But, there is simply no escaping the reality that the economics of the business have changed so substantially that it is now unsustainable.
By the time your newspaper arrives, all the news that’s fit to print was already printed on their website. You can — and I have — read the entire NY Times online the night before. You get the paper in the morning feeling that it’s old news. As the technology for display improves, and broadband becomes truly ubiquitous, we will start to see the newsprint go away. Not to mention the environmental issues.
People also loved the buggy whip, but times change.
Michael , Hoffman that is. I haven’t slipped to the point of commenting to myself, yet!
Yes, I appreciate that times are changing. I didn’t spend years gathering crowds to hear my rendition of the Dylan classic for naught, I hope. So, I accept your observations as true and yes, I admit I can scan lots of news sources quickly on line. However, there is still that old timey solice in that pipe and paper -no apologies for this image to which I must be true.
Funny, I often wave a pencil in front of my techy friends, declaring that some day they will all need one again. Didn’t the world of the Blackberry take a coffee break the other day ? So, we shall see. In the meantime, enjoy your screen and I, my print.
Really good work about this website was done. Keep trying more – thanks!