

Monitor to become the first national newspaper to ditch daily print edition for website - timtrueman
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1029/p25s01-usgn.html

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timtrueman
With the Internet I find I get more instant "this just happened" news (without
analysis, with lame analyis or with inaccuracies). I'd be willing to go to a
weekly format with more thoughtful analysis. Take The Economist for instance,
it's not what I read to find out what's happening now. It's what I read to
find out why things are happening.

~~~
dmv
Likewise, I read monthlies like Portfolio for even deeper investigation and
higher profile features. And funny enough, this month there was a light
interview with Marc Andreessen
([http://www.portfolio.com/executives/features/2008/10/15/Marc...](http://www.portfolio.com/executives/features/2008/10/15/Marc-
Andreessen-Q-and-A)):

    
    
      If you were running the New York Times, what would you do?
    

_Shut off the print edition right now. You’ve got to play offense. You’ve got
to do what Intel did in ’85 when it was getting killed by the Japanese in
memory chips, which was its dominant business. And it famously killed the
business--shut it off and focused on its much smaller business,
microprocessors, because that was going to be the market of the future. And
the minute Intel got out of playing defense and into playing offense, its
future was secure. The newspaper companies have to do exactly the same thing._

 _The financial markets have discounted forward to the terminal conclusion for
newspapers, which is basically bankruptcy. So at this point, if you’re one of
these major newspapers and you shut off the printing press, your stock price
would probably go up, despite the fact that you would lose 90 percent of your
revenue. Then you play offense. And guess what? You’re an internet company._

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wensing
I work at a newspaper. It was just announced that our presses are shutting
down and our daily print edition will be printed on the presses of our mortal
enemy that is no longer our mortal enemy (expect that to be a trend).

Newspapers are feeling inadequate compared to the Internet at large so they're
starting to churn out more and more "this just happened" news. Unfortunately,
"this just happened" news is an easy-to-find commodity, so the strategy is
doomed, IMHO.

I think newspapers should cancel their AP subscriptions and change their print
editions almost entirely to what they call 'enterprise journalism' (answering
the why's), and their online editions to local in-depth analysis. I'm not sure
I would bother with breaking news at all, to be frank. There are too many
other channels for that.

In short, I would leave the "this just happened" alone and focus on being the
local Economist (which I've been saying before I ever read timtrueman's
comment, which I completely agree with).

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jacobscott
This is really interesting in the context of recent news about the New York
Times cashflow issues. Internet killed the print newspaper star?

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wensing
_Internet killed the print newspaper star?_

Not really. It's a little more complex, as I've learned.

* Early 2000's: Newspaper uses soon to be outdated technologies and eyeballs strategy. * Mid 2000's: Housing boom allows newspaper to rake in cash and hire lots of help. * 2007: Housing crash kills your advertising revenue, exposes bloat and deteriorating revenue in classifieds. * 2007-2008: Unless you're the NYTimes, your 10-year-old CMS/publishing platform offers you almost no way to innovate. * 2008: You throw yourself into the online world as much as possible, but you aren't sure if you can afford to invest in your long-term future (MUST. MAKE. MONEY. NOW.). * 2008-2009: Massive uncertainty and an identity crisis of great proportions.

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cstejerean
I hope more newspapers follow their lead. Printing paper editions daily sounds
inefficient and wasteful. By the time the morning newspaper hits the streets
everyone already heard about the news on TV or read about it online. I expect
daily print to go away as we get better choices for reading news on the go and
more people start using Kindles, netbooks, iPhones, etc.

~~~
jacobscott
I like the interface of reading certain things in physically better than
online. This includes, for example, the New York Times as well as Edge
Magazine.

I think it will be a while before non-PC devices are the primary way people
get their electronic news (at least five years).

~~~
iron_ball
With books, yes. With newspapers, no. I know that with some people, it's a
ritual, but I can't imagine doing the flip and fold and flip and fold and
wrinkle and crumple and cuss and tear routine with a newspaper on the subway
or bus; instead, I just hold my phone up and read the news.

The runaway success of the iPhone should open the way for handheld internet
readers to become a part of everyday life for more than just gadget geeks.

