San Francisco is in danger of losing its' last major daily newspaper. SF Mayor Newsom said recently that no one under age 30 would miss it.
And with autos, suburbs, tv, radio, factories, offices, credit card debt, plastic, bottled water, retail stores and many other features of the last century and Industrial Age also in decline, will Gen Y miss any of that either? Tell us your thoughts: will anyone under age 30 today miss newspapers?
They will not miss the newspaper. Many of them don't even read books anymore. They download the book to the ipod and listen. It is easier to listen than read and they can do other things while they listen.
Posted by: Gemi Powell | August 04, 2009 at 11:45 AM
It's a sad, but inevitable transition, but like Nora above states, you get what you pay for! What happens to the truth in reporting. When one does a search and comes up with Wikipedia or other "information" how valid is it -- often you don't even see a source -- just like so many other areas of our lives, no one wants to take responsibility! Scary for our morality and work ethic -- see post about that too on Nine Shift!
Posted by: CL Shaw | July 29, 2009 at 06:41 AM
If the don't have an online edition and don't tweet their stories, they deserve to go under.
Posted by: John | July 28, 2009 at 03:48 PM
I think that one day that they will be sorry that they did not have a better appreciation for the written word and newspapers. A tweet is just that - about 140 characters of abreviated information.
Posted by: Richard | July 28, 2009 at 03:41 PM
I don't think Gen Y will even notice because they don't look for news the way we do. They check the Internet first and would be more likely to review the online version of the newspaper because it's more convenient. Gen Y is connected and wants things fast. Buying a paper and reading through it is too slow. Online search engines can find what they need faster.
I still prefer the newspaper to the Internet for news although I use both. WhenI',m in a hurry, I increasingly find I will go online to get information rather than search manually through my own paper.
Posted by: Lisa Dael | July 28, 2009 at 03:23 PM
I am a Boomer that has replaced my newspaper with my phone. The major daily newspapers all "tweet" headlines to my phone and connect me to their online sites. I have often found I have read a story one or even two days before it has made it into the print edition of that paper.
Posted by: Doug Wood | July 28, 2009 at 11:51 AM
What people are going to miss in this world of "news aggregation" is professional journalism. Yes, yes, I read all the blogs, I read Wired, everyone is going to be a reporter. And we'll get the quality that we pay for.
Posted by: Nora | July 28, 2009 at 11:30 AM
Well,... I am now 50 and read innumerable "newspapers" everyday from around the world. I would not miss the printed page. In fact living in a province in Canada where a good chunk of our trees go to make newsprint and pollution, I welcome the idea and the opportunity of turning my province into a carbon sink (by allowing trees to grow).
Posted by: Michael Arbow | July 27, 2009 at 05:37 PM
As web-based news changes the market for newspapers, it's reminiscent of a consumer preference shift in the early 1900s, also due to a technology change. A majority of middle class families had pianos in their homes for entertainment, then radios came into the marketplace and piano sales sank. Yet a number of piano stores survive now, 80 years on. If newspapers can face a similar shift in the demand curve and survive as pianos have, some newspaper in print may exist 80 years from now.
Posted by: Tim in San Antonio | July 21, 2009 at 06:46 PM
No, they won't miss it. Gen Y never saw newspapers as objective OR authoritative. They self agregate by reading several sources online and make their own opinions.
Gen X will be the last newspaper generation - and the last newspaper journalists. It's sad, not because we'll miss paper, but because we'll miss good investigative journalism. In fact, my Gen X friend from college (M.L. Elrick) won a Pulitzer this year for his work at the Detroit Free Press. He's going to let us take our pictures with it in September at the 100th Anniversary Reunion of The State News (MSU's paper). I'm wondering how much longer the paper will even print, though - it'll probably just morph into an alumni club. At least one of my former journalism classmates got the Pulitzer before newspapers go instint.
Oh, by the way, M.L. told us he's worried about getting laid off.
Posted by: Suzanne | July 20, 2009 at 04:40 PM