The imminent collapse of the American newspaper industry has spawned entire gazeteers' worth of high-minded handwringing about the social value of newspapers and the social harm that their disappearance will unleash. It's probably all true. I love the smudgy old devils, from the headlines to the funny pages.
Newspapers are fundamentally an advertising-supported medium. Advertisers place ads in newspapers because they believe these ads will sell more products for them. The price of an ad is set by four factors:
How many people will see the ad? The more, the merrier.
Who is likely to see the ad? Are they the sort of people who are likely to want to buy what the ad is selling? Or is it so cheap to reach people with the ad (via skywriting, say), that it doesn't matter if a lot of uninterested people will see it? (After all, "most" people in a given group might not care for your stuff, but there's always an off-chance that there's one or two customers mixed in with the no-sales.)
What are the special characteristics of the medium? Can you bind a perfume strip into it? Click on it to go straight to a purchase-page? Turn left at the sign and buy a submarine sandwich? (A lot depends on the beliefs the advertiser has about the factors that contribute to purchase decisions in the medium. If you believe that perfume strips sell the hell out of perfume, you'll buy ads with perfume strips.)
What is the competition for reaching the same group of people with the same kind of ad? How many other venues afford you, the advertiser, the same opportunity as this one?
What happened to newspapers is easy to understand: There are more and better ways for an advertiser to deliver ads of similar quality to the "spendiest" newspaper readers, most of them on the Internet.
Yes, there are large groups of people who read newspapers but fall below average on Internet use. Seniors, for example -- a group of people who are apt to have already established their brand loyalties, to be focused on low prices, and to have a the motivation and discretionary time to thoroughly research their purchases. Thus, many advertisers won't pay as much to reach those readers.
I'm surprised that we're still making paper from trees. With all the technology available, we've yet to create synthetic paper? I mean it could involve some sort of genetic engineering and manufacturing..sheesh!!
I agree, Aleksandra82. After a thousand years, the market for books remains strong. There are still many people out there in love with this medium.
However, as others point out, loving the medium doesn't mean loving paper, necessarily. There's certainly no reason to kill more trees if we can find an alternative for book production that allows us to continue reading, writing, and editing books in a satisfying way. As a lifelong book lover, I'm open to that kind of change.
I recall having a discussion with a tv/film crew member about the future of film development. I'm referring to digital versus traditional film.."film rolling..action!" In the mid 90's many thought that digital filming would not take over traditional. I'm assuming this did indeed take place. I do know it is a significant decrease in cost of production.
What can we expect the production cost (minus crew and actors) to be for a film with a $50 million budget today in 10 years?
video embedding - the best thing since the internet sliced bread!
If books don't survive as well as you're predicting, how will it impact Barnes and Noble and smaller booksellers? I firmly believe book sales will see a decline, however will not ever become obsolete so as long as paper is available. When display technologies such as hologram projectors become ubiquitous as cell phones are today, lugging books around would almost be against logic in my opinion.
Will our education system rely on books (printed text) when interactive mediums prove their value to be higher(efficient productivity) than traditional text? Especially when costs (at least in public education) is a factor.
I have an impression that most of the people who are affraid that the book will soon disappear are those who are not engaged in the editorial business. I remember long, never-ending discussions during our seminars in journalism, culture and media, as well as in philosophy and easthetics, when all the students and professors phophetized the end of the book. The question was not if, but when. However, whenever I have a chance to talk to someone working in the field of publishing I ask about his or her views concerning the future of this business and obviously I usually expect a very pessimistic answer. But it's not happening. People who work in the business, manage new projects and release new titles are calm and relaxed. They are aware of the fact that the market changes and that they need to be more flexible, but they also know surpus value of their work lyes not in the publishing (because that's what the digital technology does), but in the editing itself. And that there will always be a need to make a book out of a text. What is more, the new technologies support the development of alternative distribution channels as well as inventing new tools of CRM. On the other hand, tax preferences support the availability of books on the market. Let us not forget that education on its higher and lower levels is still in 95% based on books... and, last but not least, most of the surveys show that there is a pretty stable group of people whowant to buy and read books no mather what. And there always is a supply where there is a demand.
I've loved reading ever since I was a kid. My mom bought me a copy of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer when I was around ten and, from then on, I was hooked on fiction. But now that I'm already grown up, I found myself having to struggle with reading amidst the many responsibilities that come with adult life.
I've had very little success until late last year. I got a PDA phone and loaded e-books (free from Project Gutenberg!) and articles from my favorite marketing Web sites onto it. Now, I could read in while quequeing, waiting for a friends to arrive, burning the few minutes left in my lunch break, etc. Nothing beats reading on paper, but I certainly couldn't carry that much paper around all the time, unlike my near-weightless Nokia. This time, I'd have to thank technology for bringing culture back into my life.
right on - travelling on a train and watching Raging Bull on a laptop makes me think "what's the big deal with this guy" and trying to remember when i saw it in the theater, i was just blown away.
Star Wars - honestly must be seen in a theater or better yet, a drive-in. Close Encounters at a drive-in is just about as chilling as Halloween in almost any medium (except iPod when it's about as annoying as a mosquito).
There are just too many great things that cannot be enjoyed fully on a small screen. For example, it's just too hard to really see the facial reactions of people when you view it on a small screen especially when they are supposed to see something "big" (like King Kong, Godzilla, and others) and both of them have to be shown together on the screen. It is also too hard to really feel the intensity of the action when it is seen on a small monitor (like Star Wars, Titanic, Independence Day, etc).
The laptop and the iPod may offer some convenience. But still convenience does not really guarantee full enjoyment or satisfaction.
I agree - watching some films on a smaller monitor or (egad) any iPod just doesn't blow the candles out on my birthday cake. Convenient? Without a doubt! Thought it possible when I was a kid (mearly 30 years ago) - not even a dream.
But I cannot watch Lawrence of Arabia on something small, likewise for greats like Star Wars, 2001, or even Rocky and The Godfather. Sometimes, the stuff is bigger than the screen and dreams happen when this occurs - it is what why I went to film school.
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In big cities or well populated suburban areas of the United States, broadband is ubiquitous. Getting it is as easy as calling the local cable company and asking to send someone over to hook it up. But in other areas around the country, broadband is non-existent. And the sheer number of people without it might surprise some of the luckier Web users who have high-speed Internet connections.
Router hacking and modem security is in the news again, thanks to a presentation at Black Hat in Las Vegas this week and to the associated sensational press response.
The beauty of the digital world is that it offers logs and metrics. This can also be a huge problem. Many organizations base everything, from investment value to performance bonuses to what an author is paid per piece, solely on these metrics.
As the array of cloud computing alternatives expands, the debate regarding industry standards seems to escalate. The idea of standards is not new to the technology industry, but applying these principles to the cloud computing environment poses unique challenges.
Most of us would hate to live in a house made of glass. Yet that is what the Internet is -- a big glass house into which many people can peer and see where you are surfing and what you are up to.
Getting to Work on Smart Work: How IT Is Transforming the Implementation of the 'Internet of Things' Organizations in all industry sectors are becoming more instrumented, interconnected, and intelligent -- and that's changing the way they approach virtually every facet of their operations. It's up to IT to help organizations adopt a "Three I's" approach that leverages the emerging Internet of Things and enables them to work smarter. READ THIS eBOOK
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There's a public-policy war on copyright that nobody is winning, and inconsistencies in viewpoint and interpretation seem to be multiplying. We need to step back and think our policies over again, or we risk having a strategy that fails everyone.
Ultraviolet is an industry-wide attempt to standardize video content delivery across multiple platforms. Apart from the fact that it’s based in the cloud, relies on the DRM system, and isn’t backed by Apple… it sounds great!
The FCC's Sixth Broadband Report has a hidden secret. But here’s a hint: The regulatory body plans to regulate broadband as a telecommunications service.
Once defined by epic journeys, planning, and maps, the phrase "on the road" takes on new meaning in a digital age, where we can make all our decisions using our connected devices en route.
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