Bloggers in bathrobes beware. The journalists are taking writing back.
I read the Seattle Post Intelligencer today. Online. That’s the only way you can find it. The P.I. printed its last paper paper yesterday.
A few weeks ago, The Rocky Mountain news printed its final paper paper after 150 some odd years, and just this week a group of former journalists from this daily decided to revive “The Rocky” …online.
I think this is great. I stopped reading the paper paper long ago.
Going paperless is obvious. The environment. The social sharing/emailing, “Hey y’all check this out” aspect. The business perspective is streamlined. No paper costs, no circulation sales staff, no distribution costs. With some electricity and good writing all the functions of publishing-- editing, printing, distribution, and consumption all take place online.
This idea is certainly not novel: Kindle, Kindle 2, Sony Reader, Adobe Acrobat, PDF, Plastic Logic, and and and. Check it out at the NYTimes
So paper or plastic?
I think in the not too distant future, we will look back at hardcopies (newsprint, magazines, and books) and think it’s kind of neat. Like 8-tracks or cassette tapes or even CD’s. This change is not a bad thing. The printed word has not been around for ever, either. Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones, arguably the first novel ever (hence the name) was published in 1749. 250 years ago. Gutenberg’s Bible was printed only 250 years before that.
I can imagine a Nancy Drew type story in the future where Nancy uncovers an old house from the 2000’s and they have a library (physical library). Neato! You might even hear Nancy shriek, “Look. This is a printed book. It’s not searchable!”
I know writers out there probably feel differently, but do we want the book (magazine, newspaper) or do we want the story?
I look forward to the print free world. And you?
10 comments:
Can you imagine 3rd graders taking their classes online with a virtual teacher?? Yikes!
I have an idea of what I think the future will look like and laptops will be antiques just like old typewriters and cash registers with the pull lever that Dings are to us!
change is change for what ever comes of it. to quote me mel brooks as king louis x?? in History of the world part 1, after an aide tells him that the peasants are revolting, (brooks, louis)says "you're telling me they stink on ice!" one of the best jokes of all time. I am no champion of the poor or dispossessed but the death of print media is not one that we should greet with open arms. Gutenbergs press took literature ie literacy from the church and upper classes and put it in the hands of everyman. the press was instrumental in leaving the dark ages and allowed us to remove the oppressing thumb of the then church. with the death of print we once again approach a time where access to information will only be accessible to those who can afford the key, the computer. while the PC is pervasive it is not universal. information must be universal and access to it must be unlimited. by creating barriers to information, ie local news, only those who have a PC will be able to educate themselves regarding the machinations of local govt. notice of suit, obituaries, crime reports, PTA and flower club meetings for example information that connects us legally and socially will no longer available to those that do not have a PC. As for the environmental aspect without researching it, I am not sure that print is any more harmful than prodcuing PCs. PCs contain mercury, plastics and stuff in hard drives that we dont even know what it is less how we are supposed to dispose of it. I would hazard that the two are about as equally as damaging. Economically on a whole the loss of print media reduces jobs here where PCs are made elsewhere. Simple args, knee jerk thoughts. call me old and sentimental but change is not always a good thing from where i stand. and yes i posted this from my laptop. but then again were not talking on the phone either. easy to hide behind a PC not so easy to hide behind the paper. thanks for the blog.
Why can't we just be happy having both? After all, who wants to read a dirty inky newspaper in bed anyway...but I'll be damned if I'm ever gonna curl up with my laptop when it's raining outside.
OMG I would need a cup of coffee to read Brendan's post because its mid-afternoon and my brain is wiped...but I totally understood the "I fart in your general direction" lol. Linguistics I understand even without coffee!
reposted)
But seriously, Brendan, nicely said. In the Mel Brooks' vein of things, you "coalesce the vapors of human experience into a viable and meaningful comprehension."
Thus, "I fart in your general direction."
I will miss books in your future. A collection of books, displayed proudly tells you something about the reader, or at least what they would like you to know about them.
Yea I know this has already happened in music, but that does not mean that album cover art or a well crafted leather book binding is something to be valued.
What does happen to all the old computer stuff? I have three full computers worth of junk piling up in my garage. I just passed a couple of boxxes of old books on to the Salvation Army.
You cannot line the hampster cage with the PC.
The farter was a Frenchmen!
brendan, re the enviro piece, servers, I've heard acct for up to 1 percent of all electricity consumed
And how come u couldn't work "oh pissboy" into your quote?
So is this Brendan from Jackson, Miss?? Gene Brent's sister, here.
And, I want books. I want paper cuts. I want a stack of encyclopedias in which to wallow (a man named Seymour Harry Butthole was in our Worldbook 1962). I want my kids in bed with a flashlight under the sheets with Richie Rich comic books.
And, I want the Sunday Times littering my den and flooring our guinea pig cage.
sf
Perhaps I should apologize for my "Beavis and Butthead" comment above, but my brother and I really thought that entry in our Worldbook was hilarious.
sf
Well, you're all right.
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