News in printed form is in secular decline. However, news delivered the way consumers want it is growing and thriving.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I think there'd be huge losses if there weren't newspapers. I know everything's shifting to the Internet and some people would say, 'News is news, what you're talking about is a change of consumption, not the product that's out there.' But I think there is a change.
Newspapers with declining circulations can complain all they want about their readers and even say they have no taste. But you will still go out of business over time. A newspaper is not a public trust - it has a business model that either works or it doesn't.
It may be coincidence that the decline of newspapers has corresponded with the rise of social media. Or maybe not.
My general view is the delivery of news is changing in dramatic ways, and will continue to change into ways we can't even predict.
People are worried about what's going to happen to journalism - and they should be. Every day, the blogosphere is getting better and print media is getting worse; you have to be an idiot not to see that.
There is a long history of newspapers being doomed. They were doomed by radio. They were doomed by television. They were probably doomed by the telegraph way back when.
The fundamentals of what journalism is about don't necessarily change. What will change is the delivery of news.
The point is that instead of a monolithic brick of printed content - delivered more or less unchanged to all subscribers - social media offers news that is personalized and nimble.
The printed newspaper is a powerful showcase for news, opinion and advertising.
From the beginning on, newspapers have prospered for one reason: giving readers the news that they want.