tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16333114.post8303158111685722660..comments2024-03-15T18:24:24.311-04:00Comments on kenneth in the (212): Page 1 Consider (02/25)Kenneth M. Walshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01666275272819956774noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16333114.post-61014447997767530142009-02-26T18:09:00.000-05:002009-02-26T18:09:00.000-05:00I can't argue with 'Obama as inspiration' --- whet...I can't argue with 'Obama as inspiration' --- whether to a greater or lesser extent...I agree that if Obama can get more people to get more education and therefore more involved, news consumption will increase.<BR/><BR/>And there is positive: the core function of newspapers --- informing --- has been and will continue to be relevant. <BR/><BR/>But the only companies that will survive to do that are those that stop seeing themselves parochially as being in the 'newspaper business' and start seeing themselves as as being in the 'news business' and adapting and delivering that information in the constantly evolving formats that consumers demand.<BR/><BR/>Newspaper companies find themselves in this horrible predicament because of the same affliction of Detroit's Big Three: complacency --- the complete failure to forecast and adapt to evolving technologies. There have ben no surprises here --- the Internet writing has been on the wall for at least 15 years and more like 20. I was running a tech mag back in the 90s and it could be seen on the horizon even then and general-interest news companies failed to jump in. But then newspaper companies have always been among the most conservatively run (read this as 'C-H-E-A-P!) businesses. Now they're paying for their lack of vision, only we'll be paying for it along with them.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com