Are The Days of Reading Newspapers Going Away?

[LoungeMachine]

My favorite newspaper since I was a kid, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer [The P-I] is going under.

To be more clear, Hearst is letting it go under. Seattle will no longer be a 2 newspaper town, sadly.

I've read the P-I since I was 12, and have been a subscriber for nearly 20 years.

Years ago they entered into a joint operating agreement with regrds to printing and classified with The Seattle Times, but kept their news and editorial content. Perhaps you're familiar with David Horsey?

Reading the sunday paper is a ritiual to this day. One I've passed down to my kids. They even get into reading the paper at times.

There's just something about newsprint, the feel, the look, the smell that is so inviting.

Like everyone today, I get most of my "news" etc, online. But I STILL look forward to coffee and my morning paper.

Whenever I'm at The Pike Place Market I'll even pick up a copy of the Sunday New York Times [week old, $5]

And in times of big news, I'll read both the PI and The Seattle Times, to see how differently they're covering, or not covering the same story.


So it's a sad day here. The PI will cease to exist in a few weeks, after over 130 years of being in print.


They're going to an online-only format, meaning just another website.

How the FUCK am I to fold a website in half, and do the crosswords with my toast and iced-coffee ????????

fuck.

Below is Hearst's answer, an electronic, handheld newspaper reader.

Blech


Sometimes, progress just sucks balls.

[LoungeMachine]

February 27, 2009 12:48 PM PST
Hearst developing its own e-reader, for periodicals

by Dong Ngo It looks as if the e-paper revolution is really about to start.

Hearst, one of the largest media conglomerates in the world, announced on Friday that it has developed an electronic reader for newspapers and magazines, the way Amazon.com's new Kindle does for books.



Soon you'll be able to read magazines and newspapers on an e-reader.

(Credit: Theoprahmag.com)
The news, first reported by Fortune magazine, is really significant, as Hearst owns about 16 daily and 49 weekly newspapers, and has a strong influence on hundreds of magazines. Examples of those include the San Francisco Chronicle, Oprah Winfrey's O, and Cosmopolitan.

It's unclear if the device Hearst has been working on has anything to do with the eReader that Plastic Logic unveiled recently, but its principle seems the same. It's a handheld device used to read digital content, much like the Kindle. The main difference would be that Hearst's e-reader has a much larger size to accommodate the format of newspapers and magazines.

It's also speculated that Hearst's e-reader is going to be physically flexible and even foldable. The first version would come in black and white, with a later model coming in color and even with video playback capability.

Once implemented, this would change the way newspapers and magazines are published. Instead of getting a print copy, you can just download the newest issues on the e-reader, wirelessly. No printing or paper is involved. Besides the environmental factor, this would cut down about 50 percent of the cost to circulate a periodical.

It's also not clear when you can get the first issue of Cosmopolitan on this new e-reader, but considering the recent launch of the Kindle 2 and the upcoming e-reader from Plastic Logic, Hearst's e-reader will probably be launched in 12 to 18 months.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10174003-93.html

[chefcraig]

The problem facing the newspaper industry today is much the same as that of the music industry: convenience. There was a time in this country when if you wished to get your hands on a piece of music, you had to travel to a mall or department store and purchase it. The same could be said for newspapers, ie the need to physically go someplace and pick one up. Home delivery changed this for a great many years, yet required employees and vehicles to achieve it.

Then along comes the Internet, removing the need for employees to deliver the product, and vehicles to do so in. Even more, the need to package the product became unnecessary, so out went the plastic bags or containers they came in. Hell, the companies no longer needed devices or stores to sell the damned things in. With the advent of the cyber-space, the delivery system of these products was completely eliminated. There are folks alive today that have terrific music collections that have never once stepped into a music store, let alone even paid for the tunes. And crap, with today's cell-phones, you can take the internet with you, which makes for some delightful episodes when people feel the need to read or communicate while driving.

What hasn't changed is integrity. Music and newspapers still need humans to create them. The problem lies not in the stories that need to be told, rather who is doing the telling. Both industries have sought to hire people willing to work for the lowest wages possible, and this is in turn reflects in the result of their labors, which more often than not are shoddy to say the least, and childishly embarrassing to say the most. The current paper of record in my town does not feature a front page filled with columns and up to 4-5 stories. Instead, the paper offers one large picture and one story to support it. This is not only absurd, it is ghastly non-informative. What were once separate sections have been banded together in at times mystifying fashion, so you are apt to get the comics mixed in with the money section, and the weather report tucked inside the sports section. Combined with the ad space sold to keep the paper afloat, you get a loosely held together approximation of a newspaper, consisting of 3 or (on a busy news day) 4 sections.

As costs increase and circulation dwindles, the end game is clear for both the music and newspaper industry. The clanging sound you hear is the internet itself, and let's face it...you simply cannot un-ring a bell.

[FORD]

Going from two papers to one, is bad, but down south it's even worse. The Tacoma News Tribune and The Olympian are now essentially the same paper. So that's one newspaper for two cities. And if your paper doesn't come in the morning, you have to call the Philippines to complain about it.

Now how the Hell does that make any sense?

Media consolidation will be the death of this country. It played a huge role in enabling the BCE, as it is.

[Andy Taylor]

Convergence is a big theme there and it's part of everything. Media, nation states ... laugh all you want, but control in the hands of a few point to just one thing.

[Julius]

I feel your pain, Lounge. My paper folded yesterday....



Today was the first time in my adult life that I didn't have a paper with the morning coffee.

[LoungeMachine]

This sucks.

[FORD]

Bummer about the Rocky Mountain News. I remember linking to a few of their articles in this very forum over the last 8 years.

[kwame k]

I get most of my news from the Internet now but............it was almost a rite of passage to sit down on a Sunday morning or any morning for that matter and read the paper. Cup of coffee and the news. There was something almost reassuring about the paper and each section. News, sports, and the Lifestyle sections made me feel connected to my local area. Now, while I can get information quicker and more up to date. Something has been lost or will be lost. They are stopping the daily newspaper here in Metro-Detroit and only going to do the weekend editions for delivery. Wow, from watching my grandparents doing the crosswords and my parents reading the morning paper, to my own ritual of the daily news, now that seems like a bygone era. Truly sad. That and the fact that true journalists, at least in television, are a dying breed. No more Murrow's and TV is reduced to 30 second sound bites or in depth coverage of the latest star's breakdown, it was nice to get in depth coverage of important news stories from the newspaper.......to quote, "What a drag it is getting old".

[LoungeMachine]

Before we know it we're going to be left with USA Today.

Thank God for The Washington Post. [for now]

[thome]

With the invention of the computer communication was changed forever.

Soon, all will be just people posting emoticons with few words, the world will be simply communication with Kanji.

With all the pop-ups I get I hardly need to read the paper ..... did you know I could be..... scoring with, Hot Sexy Babes in KC Rite. NOW!!! One of them even asked about how she missed me last night.

Lord knows I had -No Idea- that I needed male enhancement.

But, thankfully.... Lounges new band set me on the path to, free credit reports...whew! (I have the ablum on back order)

Concepts of FACT will be used instead of words of definition.
It will become all visual -in the point- of -focus- of emotional dialect.

You know like those people who get jimmy..... down at the tattoo, Cleveland to Ink them with Chinese Power signs that translate to -Enter Power Here Dumpster Bottom.

[katie]

My favorite newspaper since I was a kid, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer [The P-I] is going under.

To be more clear, Hearst is letting it go under. Seattle will no longer be a 2 newspaper town, sadly.

I've read the P-I since I was 12, and have been a subscriber for nearly 20 years.

Years ago they entered into a joint operating agreement with regrds to printing and classified with The Seattle Times, but kept their news and editorial content. Perhaps you're familiar with David Horsey?

Reading the sunday paper is a ritiual to this day. One I've passed down to my kids. They even get into reading the paper at times.

There's just something about newsprint, the feel, the look, the smell that is so inviting.

Like everyone today, I get most of my "news" etc, online. But I STILL look forward to coffee and my morning paper.

Whenever I'm at The Pike Place Market I'll even pick up a copy of the Sunday New York Times [week old, $5]

And in times of big news, I'll read both the PI and The Seattle Times, to see how differently they're covering, or not covering the same story.


So it's a sad day here. The PI will cease to exist in a few weeks, after over 130 years of being in print.


They're going to an online-only format, meaning just another website.

How the FUCK am I to fold a website in half, and do the crosswords with my toast and iced-coffee ????????

fuck.

Below is Hearst's answer, an electronic, handheld newspaper reader.

Blech



Sometimes, progress just sucks balls.

Get with the times Grandad

x

[Nickdfresh]

Right! Three user-IDs and a blatant need for attention show's you're a fatty, twat!

[BITEYOASS]

I've grown tired of newspapers, especially when they get soaked in the front yard because the paperboy didn't bother to put in on the front porch during a rain storm. Plus, I just look at Yahoo! in order to find my news and all the free puzzles that are available.

[katie]

Lounge likes the dot to dots,

I haven't seen him finnish one yet though.