Life without Newspapers - are dailies dead?

Posted by Robb Montgomery on April 3, 2006 at 7:47 PM

This writer's experiment echos the movie 'Supersize-Me' only in reverse - Brian Hieggelke in Chicago writes for New City about his experiences going cold turkey from print in a two newspaper town.

The revenue underpinnings of print newspapers are complex structures that have evolved over decades, yet are eroding over months. Consequently, newspaper companies are likely to become either much smaller and more specialized or much more diversified at the corporate level if they are to survive.

Critical observations listed here.

SOURCE» New City

Over time, my addiction to newspapers became as much a burden as a pleasure.
"I've grown more pessimistic about the future of the print newspaper, a notion supported by the growing consensus of countless pundits contemplating the crashing earnings and circulation figures flowing out of the once-mighty emperors of ink.
For me, the proliferation of the wireless Internet has been the lynchpin, as I've become addicted to perpetual connectivity and have seen my lifestyle changing to reflect it. And I'm from the newspaper generation; those behind me lack any allegiance to print
With print, you might not have the latest news, but you have a built-in sense for how fresh it is, and make mental adjustments. With the web, you rely on posting times, which you usually have to click on a story to see, or you live with confusion.
It's almost two weeks since I kicked the print newspaper habit and, truthfully, I'm not feeling any pain, or any more optimistic for the future of the daily newspaper. I still spend as much or more time reading news in the morning, but my consumption has changed fundamentally. I do feel a tad disoriented, like a brand-new vegetarian might feel after a lifetime of carnivorous behavior.
Today my month-long "vacation stop" ends, and there is my newspaper, like clockwork, outside my door. I find it easy to return to my routine, with my chair, my paper, my coffee. But something has changed. I've grown accustomed to a new manner of digesting news, and especially fond of keeping up with the Sun-Times. And I'm reading the New York Times again, and realizing how much I missed it.
The revenue underpinnings of print newspapers are complex structures that have evolved over decades, yet are eroding over months. Consequently, newspaper companies are likely to become either much smaller and more specialized or much more diversified at the corporate level if they are to survive.
As newspapers shrink, they might get personality back. Before World War II, newspapers were the domain of larger-than-life press barons like William Randolph Hearst, Joseph Pulitzer and Chicago's own Colonel McCormick. Many were relentless and even unscrupulous in their pursuit of stories, of circulation and of profits, and they unabashedly had personalities that matched their owners.
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