FIRST PAPER GOES DIGITAL

Just as I predicted, newspapers have followed the trend initiated by magazines in their movement towards the internet. Today, the Seattle-Post Intelligencer (Seattle's oldest business, for the record) became the first major newspaper to switch to an all-digital format. Tuesday's printed newspaper will be their last.

What is this?

Well, basically it was a long time coming. The current economic crisis is speeding up what will be coming to other papers anyhow. The era of the printed newspaper is over.

In their current form, they are fatally flawed. Printing papers is prohibitively expensive, and delivering them is more expensive (and an environmental stress). Magazines don't have the daily expenses that newspapers do, but their expenses are higher, and both will be out within 15 years.

In the future, newspapers and magazines will be entirely online. Some of the more successful ones may be able to afford a printed Sunday edition, or a yearly commemorative or celebratory printed edition, but the daily delivery to houses or businesses are done.

News is fluid and news is now. People need updates not daily but hourly. Some organizations like the New York Times have found residence elsewhere, in a more "analysis/ commentary/ investigative" realm, which may suit them for now, but the truth is that most people want their information in a two sentence morsel, in colors. That's why places like MSNBC or TMZ have flourished; vast updates and loud graphical interfaces.

What about other printed material? What about books?

Well, lets be honest, no one reads books anymore. But for those who do, you will probably buy one device more or less designed like a book, with a cover, etc., where you will download books like you do music on iTunes for $9.99 or whatever, and own them digitally. Amazon has a device called Kindle that is doing this. It is woefully ugly in design, almost Microsoft-ish in its cold android appearance, but if someone like Apple got on this, it would be HOT, it would be the next iPod, easy. When will the iBook arrive and what will it look like?

I am all for this. I am pro-streamline and pro-efficiency. But there are some unfortunate causalities that will happen. Going to the neighborhood video store, for example, is a ritual that I love. And this will be something that will have to end. Institutions like Amoeba Music will shut down (Cody's Books already did!). 

If intellectual property becomes entirely electronic, which it will, then we will lose our community meeting places (like book stores, music stores, etc.) Movie theatres may stick around off their novelty, but they are endangered too.

The evolution of media did lead to group, community conglomerates, which is something that brought people together. Now this evolution is ripping people apart. I hope that in our electronic future, we will find a way to integrate people into people's media. Realtime chat, user response, etc. are things that will be vital. Let's find a way to do this right.