Print media: Like Running a Vinyl Record Co.
Brand Repulic reports this excellent quote from Andrew Gowers, former editor of the Financial Times. In his words print media is:
"the early 21st century equivalent of running a record company specialising in vinyl"
Another fantastic quip was made when commenting on his future in printed media, "I am focused on what comes next. And I have already all but decided, whatever it is, it will not involve ink printed on dead trees.".
- Y! MyWeb
I hope not
Soon it'll be the hip thing to have a paper book and some underground inner city youth culture will develop around reading real books.
I don't see that
I don't see that happening..yet.
Thing is, until monitors can be made such that they emulate paper, it ain't gonna happen. The easiest thing on the eyes is a black text printed on white paper...
Periodicals more than books
I think periodicals (magazines and newspapers mostly) will hurt more than books. Of course, Google's doing its best to kill off the book publishing industry, but then Napster couldn't kill the recording industry, will Google succeed where Napster fell flat?
A long way off
Well, not necessarily napster, but certainly filesharing as a whole is killing the recording industry. I can record, produce, and distribute an album without belonging to a record label. It can certainly expedite your career, but it's not necessary.
I think authors would benefit from a similar death to book publishing industry. When you think about the industry as the mechanism behind the promotion, distribution, and sales of the authors work.
Newspapers, definitely. Magazines, much later. Magazines are so appealing to the impulse shopper that they may never go out.
In any event, I think printed books will be around for a long time.
Daily Newspapers will continue to get smaller
They will still be around, but the newspapers won't be as thick as they used to be. As circulation gets smaller and smaller, we may see a decrease in the advertising rates at certain papers from the bigger cities.
Small town America still relies heavily on local newspapers, and the local mom and pop businesses cannot afford to put up a website--they would rather spend $30 on an ad in the local newspaper.
grnidone is right, I'm not sure it will be going away soon. Newspapers will still be around, especially because my guinea pig relies on shredded up newsprint in its cage.
>local mom and pop
local mom and pop businesses cannot afford
If they can't afford a site or learn how to do it themselves they have no place in business, imho.
What's to afford?
Often, local classifieds (even on the net) are free. So is the knowledge that such services are available.
On the other side...
I think it's a little drastic to say if they don't have a site, they have no place in business. I would say they have no place in the global or national marketplace.
But then, maybe they don't want to be. They just want to make sure that everyone in their town of 400 knows that tomatoes are 5 cents cheaper than normal. Or that this car dealership has 0% interest for 48 hours.
You can't (yet) create the same sense of urgency, and reach as many local residents, as quickly on the net as you can with a local rag.
It's not just the accessibility to the owner, but the reach to potential consumers that will be tough to duplicate.
If they can't afford a site
In small town America, it's not that they cannot afford a website. Their ideal potential customers don't turn to the internet to find the local business--they pick up the newspaper or the phone book.