March 7, 2005

Whither the newspaper?

Acts of Voli­tion has some great com­men­tary, by way of Peter Rukav­ina about how the decen­tral­ized nature of the Web affects our think­ing and culture.

What struck me is that news­pa­pers have tra­di­tion­ally been a force for centralization.

News­pa­pers go out into the com­mu­nity — be it lit­eral, like Atlanta, or fig­u­ra­tive, like pop music — and gather news and infor­ma­tion from dis­per­ate sources.

Then they bring it back, in the old days to one cen­tral build­ing — though now it may be a bureau, write it up and push it back out to readers.

So, in the future, as our cul­ture adapts to one where media con­sumers are also media pro­duc­ers, what’s the future of news­pa­pers — or any infor­ma­tion collecting/dissemenating insti­tu­tion for that matter.

I don’t have the answer, it’s a ques­tion that’s always a back­ground process run­ning in my head.

One thing I do know: power in the hands of con­sumers has almost always proven to be a good thing in just about any industry.

But the prod­uct we peddle one that’s so vital and impor­tant to the health of a democ­racy, information.

I may not know the answer, but I’m opti­mistic that I’ll like the outcome.

Filed under: Business,Journalism,Management

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