This one is for Michael, who raised a question about the need for definitions in our post on reading the classics. World reporter Timothy Lamer asks, “Is the newspaper industry about to die or experience a revival? The answer may depend on whom you ask and how you define the word newspaper.” Heh, heh.
The point of the article is to quote some folks about how newspapers will survive and can they make money online. I think a subscription for the Chattnaooga Times-Free Press (formerly two papers, one of which was the Chattanooga News-Free Press, a far superior name don’t you think?) for a year is $120. If the cost was $50/year and it was only online, would I subscribe for the sake of local news? I don’t know. Maybe I would. I think I’d have to see the offer when it comes, much like the 2008 presidential election questions being asked now. I don’t know if I would vote for Giuliani or McCain. I don’t want to vote for either of them. So, I’ll wait and see what the options are.
One big problem most papers have is this; in their editorials they claim to be great environmentalists, yet they use up huge amounts of resources. (And at least where I live, half of the space goes to advertising.)
I wonder if the big problem newspapers have is their majority of negative coverage. I wish we could run the numbers on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution if we switched their editorial and news philosophy to the conservative and positive side. The paper would likely be smaller, but I wonder if the subscribers would like it.
So what is a newspaper? It all depends on what the definition of the word is is …
Oh dear.
Soon I will be lining the bird cage with discarded laptops.