Is traditional media doomed?

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Hi Philip,

Over the past few years I've stopped reading print media as a source of news. Why read something written by a journalist when you can go online and read blog posts about the same topic written by Nobel Prize Winners and Captains of industry? If you're really interested in a topic, online you can even discuss it with World leading experts in the field.

Every once in a while, I'll notice a facebook friend post an online version of an editorial from a traditional newspaper. Unlike blogs and message boards, these will have no links to reference material, will sometimes disallow comments, and are often authored by someone without a deep understanding of the topic. (example chosen at random).

Professional publications could create online versions of themselves that copy all of the best aspects of blogs and message boards. Print publications can't. Is print media doomed?



-- Greg Leroux, June 13, 2012

Answers

I think Wikipedia is a real challenge to newspapers, actually, because if you haven't been keeping up with a story it is essential to check Wikipedia to find out how the story developed.

The move to the Web seems to have resulted in a concentration of readers. More for the biggest news sites and less for formerly mid-sized newspapers. So print is doomed, obviously, but I don't think nytimes.com is doomed.

-- Philip Greenspun, November 6, 2012