Newspapers and the Tubes

Posted on 02/05/2009 at 7:55 am by JumpyPants

What do we know about newspapers and the internets? We know that print newspapers are dying. We know that subscription models don’t work online. They never have, other than with, you know, porn. There are numerous things the print people are doing wrong, and shutting out internet readers with a subscription service is like sticking with VHS in a DVD world.

I have a long, long motivational-speaker-like speech about this topic and how establishment media (including papers, TV, music, etc) is treating the internet like a bastard stepchild of instead of the core of their business models. But this is the broadstroke reason why establishment media is struggling with the internet. They need to turn their models inside-out. In the newspaper world, print is still wagging the dog and this means epic fail.

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  • Bedlam UK

    You may get a defensive World of Warcraft player reminding you of the trilliony billion WOW players that pay subscriptions and of course denying all knowledge of porn subs.Totally irrelevant to your point, but slightly more OT; I thought that unless that Broadband subsidy is initiated a surprisingly high number of Americans don’t have internet access.Is that not correct ?

  • jmrunning3

    I think there’s another point to this as well. Millions of people prefer the sound-bite media, which is free and easily-digested. The print media and online subscription media suffer for the additional reason that too many people don’t devote their porn-time, reality TV-time, or whatnot to really digging into the issues. The GOP has utilized this perfectly. The pants-wetting OH NOES! are just another way of getting their perferred sound-bites above the din via manufactured emails, screen-crawls, etc.I am an avid reader of books, publications, and blogs (GDAB being the best, of course), but most Okies around me only listen to Rush and Hannity and read Drudge and unsubstantiated emails.This was the goal and the result of the dumbing-down of America.

  • SillyGit

    @ Bedlam UKIt’s bedlam over here also too.

    I thought that unless that Broadband subsidy is initiated a surprisingly high number of Americans don’t have internet access.Is that not correct ?

    A surprisingly high number of Americans don’t have *broadband* internet access. Dial-up access is available everywhere that one can have a POTS phone installed.As you are aware, the U.S. is a big place. There are vast rural regions where Cable TV is not available. xDSL is not available is even non-rural areas since the phone cartels are loath to install remote terminals unless they are certain the RTI is favorable.I don’t have the most recent statistics, but the statistics from 2005 (IIRC) seemed to indicate that broadband access subscriptions were just about saturated in regions in which it was available. This was a big change since as recently as 2002, more than half of subscribers were still on dial-up.At this point in time, people are on dial-up only because there is no broadband access in their region.I am ignoring discussion of people who can not afford internet connections of any kind, or those that still have dial-up because they can’t afford broadband. These people certainly exist, I don’t know the statistics, and it is only peripheral to your question.Thanks for not calling us Merkins. That conjures up images of hair-pieces that are sometimes disturbing. (I can’t blame folks for calling us that since our prior President was excellent at continuously conjuring disturbing images and he always spoke like an illiterate hick.)

  • http://www.osborneink.com Matt Osborne

    Someone actually spray-painted a message for the phone company on one of their router boxes: “HEY ATT WE WANT DSL”What’s crazy is that our (Republican) governor has announced that the state will spend millions to have a consultant figure out what parts of Alabama don’t have broadband access. Seeing as how the phone and cable companies know **exactly** which customers don’t have access, wouldn’t it be cheaper and simpler to just ASK them?

  • NorCalNative

    Bob, I’ve got mixed feelings about this topic. I appreciate all of the great content I can get for free over the tubes. However, those who produce something of value on the internet, such as yourself, should get paid for doing so!Of course writer’s should have the option to give their stuff away for free if that’s their choice. But, at what point does burnout enter and become problematic because there’s little or no cash to show for the effort?During the Bush regime, voices such as yours kept me SANE! In that black equals white world of Dick Cheney and his scary monsters what you were saying had significant value to me and many others based on the number of comments some of your HuffPo columns got.My fear is that this trend may eliminate the funding for all the “double super secret” stuff that only money-backed journalism can uncover. I used to feel that there was no way my laptop would replace ink stained fingers. I’m over that now.I purchased a copy of your book last night and I’ll be hitting you up for an address to send for signing after I get if from Amazon.com.Lance Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer and the rest of Astana have been holding a training camp here in Santa Rosa. One of our local “hooples” gave them a little scare on a narrow hilly road yesterday because he wasn’t into waiting to pass.Astana was riding a steep and twisty coastal road near the SMALL town of Cazadero known for pot growing hippies and their rain-forest like yearly rain totals.

  • SillyGit

    Matt -Hehe, Yes. But if they just asked then that consultant would have to find a real job. I suspect that he will fulfill the contract by asking the service providers, so he is just an unnecessary middle man sucking on the government teat. SOP.