The Rocky Mountain News to Close Shop on Friday
February 26, 2009 – 3:35 pmThe Rocky Mountain News will publish its last edition this Friday. This, on the heals of the San Francisco Chronicle announcing they will most likely have to close shop as well.
Last year I wrote a post entitled RIP - 1457 - 2015 (Traditonal Newspapers). Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Within the next year or two, we are going to see many more papers follow a similar fate.
What will save the papers?
I strongly believe the newspaper, as we know of it today, will be completly obsolete within 10 years. The content will be created by journalists, bloggers, twitterers, youtubers, iPhoners and the like. Everything will be consumed and published electronically. Content will be sent to you instantly and will 100% be focused on your personal needs, wants and desires. This personalization of news and information, will bring your community and the rest of the World even closer together.
In order for papers to embrace this, they first must embrace the Internet and the digitization and distribution of content.
While many things will need to change within the traditional newspaper organizations, the first step in saving the newspaper industry is to have leadership that understands the web and technology.
One Response to “The Rocky Mountain News to Close Shop on Friday”
Mega ditto….I did not renew my classified rateholder contract with my local 7-day weekly last October….the link from their electronic version to my website was broken for 6 weeks and I e-mailed every other day to fix it.
When I wrote that I was not renewing and that I was going to use electronic media only for my rental home advertising, I got a phone call from my ad rep that if I did not re-sign, my line rate would go UP….a month later, the FOR SALE sign was on their building….this arcane mentality is unfortunate; however, the electronic realities of advertising have been around for decades and they should have embraced it long ago.
By W, Gibson on Feb 27, 2009