I am resigned to the possibility that newspapers in their printed incarnation may well eventually disappear. I think I could even get used to the idea of reading them on some kind of portable device such as an e-book: The Times Reader (the online version of the New York Times) is not bad at all.
It could well be, too, that quality newspapers as we know them today are doomed to disappear all together. I don't know. But if this does happen, let's not pretend, as so many do, that they can be adequately replaced by such publications as The Huffington Post, the Daily Beast, Salon or even Slate, in my view the best of the crop. For all their qualities, these are essentially glorified blogs "sitting on the shoulders of giants". If they became our sole source of information, it would be as though the BBC consisted of Radio 5 and nothing else!
Greetings Barnaby,
ReplyDeleteHere in London newspaper 'wars' are at an interesting stage and certainly if you commute to the office by public transport as the majority of Londoners still do, reading a real newspaper is a good way of using the journey time productively. We have had two free evening papers; the London Paper and the London Lite with one paid for Evening Standard (50p cover price) plus the free am Metro paper and the plethora of paid for dailies.
The London Paper has just folded(lol). Now the Russian mogul who recently acquired the Standard is in a week's time going to make it a freebie with free deliveries not only to commuters but also direct to universities offices hospitals etc. As the Standard is of high quality journalism and is v. quick with London andinternational news, and has some v. readable editorials, I don't see it fading in favour of the internet - I hope not anyway.