News Scenarios

Read today’s New Yorker:
The Financial Page
News You Can Loseby James Surowiecki
December 22, 2008
Intriguing quote form ‘The Wisdom of Crowds’ guy:
“Does that mean newspapers are doomed? Not necessarily. There are many possible futures one can imagine for them, from becoming foundation-run nonprofits to relying on reader donations to that old standby the deep-pocketed patron. It’s even possible that a few papers will be able to earn enough money online to make the traditional ad-supported strategy work. But it would not be shocking if, sometime soon, there were big American cities that had no local newspaper; more important, we’re almost sure to see a sharp decline in the volume and variety of content that newspapers collectively produce. For a while now, readers have had the best of both worlds: all the benefits of the old, high-profit regime—intensive reporting, experienced editors, and so on—and the low costs of the new one. But that situation can’t last. Soon enough, we’re going to start getting what we pay for, and we may find out just how little that is.”
If you think the auto industry is being forced into a major restructuring of its manufacturing, distribution, sales and support operations, it’s probably nothing compared to what we’ll see in the next 12 months in the news business. And, as Surowiecki notes, it’s during a period when ironically people are actually getting more connected to news, not less.
Stephen