Mar 29, 2008

The Death Of Newspapers

If you read blogs such as this on a regular basis, you ought to read Eric Alterman's piece in this week's New Yorker magazine, "Out Of Print," about the rapid decline and impending death of newspapers. The culprit is the new media, of which this blog is a tiny part. Only 19% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 even look at a daily newspaper.

Alterman does not miss the irony, obvious to readers of this blog, that the new media are heavily dependent upon newspapers for their content.

I have had occasion to talk with reporters from the traditional media on several occasions lately. They alway seem to ask where they could go to learn more about what is going on at Social Security. For obvious reasons, I always mention this blog. The response has always been the same, an audible sneer of contempt from the reporter.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I no longer subscribe to the newspaper because of the bulk of the paper is of no interest to me - advertising and sports. Our city only picks up recycling every two weeks by which time I had six grocery bags full of paper. Here you can be fined if you throw the paper in the garbage so it has to be held somewhere for two weeks. With online media I can read what interests me and delve deeper if I wish. I can also get up dates faster than once per day.