Is the News a Joke?
May 3, 2007 by Dave Earley
Filed under Media, News, Print
Perhaps it’s a result of recent numbers released saying newspaper circulation has declined yet again, but David Letterman’s Late Show Top Ten list the other night was “Top Ten Signs Your Newspaper is in Trouble“.
In reference to the post title, I don’t think news is a joke. Newspapers shouldn’t panic, but take heart that there is also a trend to increasing online readership. The revenue lost from print isn’t yet being returned online, and it might never fully be, but in the long run media outlets are not likely to go out of business. They’ll just be smarter about how they manage their resources and news collection. For example, in the form of unpaid citizen journalist contributors.
From David Letterman’s Late Show
Top Ten Signs Your Newspaper is in Trouble.
10) “Covers all the news that happens within one block of the office.“
9) “Today’s exclusive: ‘Nixon Dead!’“
8) “Reporter sent to jail for refusing to divulge a source…Oh, and he
also killed a dude.“
7) “All horoscopes: ‘Now would be a good time to get out of the
newspaper business.“
6) “Paper’s motto: ‘Suck It’“
5) “Every ‘hot gossip’ item is about Jack Klugman.“
4) “Managing editor and guy who wheels around breakfast? Same guy.“
3) “Under ‘weather,’ it just reads ‘yes.’“
2) “Instead of ‘Garfield,’ has a comic strip called ‘Garfunkel.’“
1) “You endorsed Dennis Kucinich.“
No, it will be a long time, if ever. While newspaper readership is decreasing in the West, where more people get online access to news, the opposite is true in a lot of the third world.
Newspaper readership is increasing in places where people don’t have access to the internet…
Hey dave, how have you been bud? I don’t think newspapers will die for a long time, paper is becoming increasingly less used, but I mean, with the amount of books we have in this world, and the access to newspapers, i doubt it will happen
snap
Speaking of dying, your blog is.
Hard to say. Newspapers dying, as a business definitely not – as a print product…100 years is a long time! I don’t think they’ll die in print, but how many generations before everyone (qualified below) gets their news online, or on their mobile phone (online)?
Probably the most important thing – and what I struggle with in terms of promoting online journalism – is that the online medium is unavailable to the majority of the world’s population. That’s why print newspaper circulation has apparently only seen growth in 17% of countries – and those mostly ‘developing’ ones where you would not expect much online media consumption. (Wikipedia link)
Can you see newspapers dying dave? in 100 years time? There’s just something about paper, I tell you, like Kevin Costner in Waterworld.
“IT’S PAPPPPPPER!”