How long before Newspapers die?

Yes, but do you make the league minimum?

 

It's not just about digital, it's all about MOBILE!

 

It should be "further," not "farther."

Newspapers are doomed.

 

I answered 20 years. As several have pointed out, there is a distinction between larger cities where papers will more likely than not become obsolete in 10 years and smaller cities where papers will likely continue for years as print products.
At our small shop, we talk about the age of our readership in the typical terms of older people are more likely to subscribe. Which brings me to this point: if your print subscribers are mainly older people (like at our shop), there will be real trouble in the next 20 years for the print product. The older people of today who don't/won't read the paper via an online subscription will be replaced by older people who are more likely to have an online subscription because its something they're comfortable and familiar with.

 

Before landing my current job, I worked for a newspaper that circulated zoned editions in three counties, two of which were retirement magnets. Print readership in those counties was off the charts, but we used to speculate on how long that would last -- at some point, a generation of tech-savvy retirees would be in the majority, and they'd go online. It wasn't a question of if, but when.

 

I think we all pretty much understand the dynamics at play here. That's not really in question. The question is, however, how long do you think it will be before that time arrives? Hence, the poll, Einstein.

 

Look, I was merely responding to the previous post and recounting my experience in a situation that seemed similar. And if you go back early in this thread, I offered a prediction on how long I thought things might last. So I'm not sure why my post was offensive and why a snarky putdown was warranted. If you think it was that bad, though, I'll delete it.

 

Wrote a letter to the editor to throw a little love to my softball team. Yesterday we had the season-ending picnic. I bought 9 copies of the paper, cut out the letter from each and pasted them on sheets of paper with personalized notes for each girl. Passed them out yesterday and said something to the effect, "Yeah, you wouldn't believe what some dodo wrote in the newspaper about you girls."

"You guys read the paper, right?"

One of the 10-year-olds replies, "No, I'm not 40!"

It was funny -- all the parents laughed -- but she pretty much hit the nail on the head.

Newspapers ARE dying, but are newspapers doing anything to reach out to the next generations?

Shit, look at MLB's commercials -- they continually target kids. Pretty much every commercial has kids, happy, smiling, laughing, playing ball, getting autographs, the whole shebang. It's smart business.

 

I'm traveling this week and as a newspaper nerd, I always stop and get the local rag.

Without knowing any specifics of operations or ownership and just giving them the eye test.
Seattle Times, Looks like a paper built to last for at least a generation.
Tacoma, Another paper that looks like a long-term success and maybe the best of the bunch.
Oregonian, Could close tomorrow and I don't know who'd miss it.
Eugene, Another paper built for a generation

All that could change of course, but of the big papers, three seem on pretty solid footing. The Oregonian was just a mess though. For a paper that had such a sterlng reputation, it sure looks like something in survival mode and losing local goodwill by the bucketfuls.

 

Sorry man. Just yanking your chain a little. Just laugh and live bro.

 

Newspapers used to have a "NIE" (Newspapers In Education) program in which papers were distributed among students. Have no idea how successful it was or if/when it stopped. Just know I haven't seen any reference to that program in a long while.