Future Imperfect, Part III

Buy stock in newspapers, weep for America

http://www.boiseweekly.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A309787

The newspaper that never was

http://paleo-future.blogspot.com/2007/08/electronic-newspaper-1978.html

NewsBiz Buzz: Daily papers sink, but journalism may survive

http://blog.hcn.org/goat/2006/05/22/newsbiz-buzz-daily-papers-sink-but-journalism-may-survive/

Anatomy of a Lost Illustration Gig

http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/anatomy_of_a_lost_illustration_gig/

USA Today ends Hawaii printing, distribution

http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2007/12/10/daily47.html

Online users finish more stories than print readers

http://blog.newspaperindex.com/2007/03/29/online-users-finish-more-stories-than-print-readers/

Newspaper Editors surprisingly optimistic about their future

http://blog.newspaperindex.com/2007/04/02/newspaper-editors-surprisingly-optimistic-about-their-future/

Could a Newspaper Succeed Completely Online?

http://blog.newspaperindex.com/2007/04/02/could-a-newspaper-succeed-completely-online/

Newspaper worries free wi-fi will compete for ad revenue

http://www.lostremote.com/2007/11/11/newspaper-worries-free-wi-fi-will-compete-for-ad-revenue/

Reading is a habit that we can’t afford to lose

http://www.sundayherald.com/oped/opinion/display.var.1874554.0.0.php

Not-So-Big News

Idaho's shrinking newspapers look at a brave new (online) world

http://www.boiseweekly.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A309076

Postal Service Says Killing Small Periodicals is a "Win-Win"

http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2007/11/postal-service-says-killing-small-periodicals-is-a-win-win.html

What's Wrong With Sports Illustrated

And how to fix it.
By Josh Levin:

http://www.slate.com/id/2177143/pagenum/all/#page_start

The Death of Newspapers

http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/Opinion/Content?oid=97000

"Most of these cuts--although not necessarily all of them--are typical of the dumb-ass greed of today's newspaper companies. It happens all the time: A newspaper has an off quarter or year, profits-wise (they're still profitable, mind you, just not as profitable as shareholders or managers want); management responds by cutting staff and resources to keep profits high; the paper's quality invariably suffers without the resources it had before; readers/advertisers notice this and stop reading or buying ads; a newspaper has another off quarter or year, profits-wise; repeat cycle."

Chronicle of the Newspaper Death Foretold

http://www.slate.com/id/2154678/

"Bogart and the project rat out the usual guilty parties for falling circulation—radio and television. But they also cite city-to-suburb migration (and the distribution difficulties caused by metro sprawl), growing transience that prevents people from establishing roots that in turn nurture the newspaper habit, and changes in work and commuting patterns, as well as the flaccid editorial product in many markets."

Participatory journalism and the inevitable death of newspapers

http://www.kuam.com/news/12624.aspx

"In my opinion, most newspapers will fall victim to their own ignorance/arrogance and failure to realize they're too far behind the times until it's too late. They'll be dead before they know it - a sad but not unexpected casualty in the name of industrial progress."

The Slow Death of Newspapers

For some reason, publishers assume people will want to buy more newspapers if they have less news in them and are less useful to people.

http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/33954/

By Molly Ivins, AlterNet. Posted March 23, 2006.

"I don't so much mind that newspapers are dying -- it's watching them commit suicide that pisses me off."

'Spokesman-Review' Laying Off 14

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003667623

AP- Blaming declining advertising and circulation revenues, The Spokesman-Review newspaper says it is laying off 14 newsroom employees as part of a companywide cost-savings.

The layoffs announced Thursday involve a dozen reporters, a manager and a nonunion employee from a newsgathering staff of about 137.

Publisher W. Stacey Cowles said layoffs and early retirements in other departments will eliminate about 40 of the company's 550 positions by the end of the year.

Editor Steven A. Smith said the layoffs represent a reduction of about $1 million from the newsroom's budget of more than $9 million.

The layoffs hit the paper's Idaho reporting staff especially hard. At least six of the paper's eight reporters based in Coeur d'Alene were let go.

The future of newspapers / Who killed the newspaper?

http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7830218

The most useful bit of the media is disappearing. A cause for concern, but not for panic

Exclusive: FAS-FAX Preview -- Circ Declines, Some Steep, Continue

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003666009

Online newspaper traffic up 9% over last year

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003665638

Spokane newspaper plans layoffs

http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2007/10/22/daily11.html

Erased

http://www.utne.com/issues/2006_137/promo/12237-1.html

Stop the Presses

http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A162480

The future of newspapers - without the paper

Another round of bad news for daily newspapers

http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=69412

Newspapers lose ground in web-savvy schools

http://blog.newspaperindex.com/2007/01/30/newspapers-lose-ground-in-web-savvy-schools/

World's oldest newspaper goes out of print

http://blog.newspaperindex.com/2007/01/03/worlds-oldest-newspaper-goes-out-of-print/

Dinosaur Newspaper Awkwardly Attempts to Adjust to Web With 'Dueling Columnists'

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/p-j-gladnick/2007/10/11/dinosaur-newspaper-awkwardly-attempts-adjust-web-dueling-columnists

19th Century UK newspapers to be digitized, searchable

http://www.craigsilverman.ca/2007/09/19th-century-uk.html

The Internet - Our last hope for a free press

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/28/4171/

What will become of newspapers?

http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/presspol/news_events/news_archive/2006/last_call_carroll.pdf

“Gone is the notion that a newspaper should lead, that it has an obligation to the community, that it is beholden to the public.” The current owners, he explains, care only about money, and “are sometimes genuinely perplexed to find people in their midst who do not feel beholden, first and foremost, to the shareholder.”

Bloggers are in an entirely different position: They tend to be mavericks who work for free, and operate far from the sources of power. Feeling no need to ingratiate themselves with the movers and shakers of industry and government, they simply tell it like it is from where they sit as concerned, informed citizens with diverse areas of expertise. Though they don’t often have professional training as journalists, many of them exceed professional journalistic standards, because they answer to their consciences alone rather than to corporate honchos and fund managers. We need to hear from such people, and the fact that there are more blogs out there worth reading than anyone has time to read is a hopeful sign.