Dave Barry Claims Newspapers Are Dead

Several sites, including Marketing Vox and Media Buyer Planner (links below) point to an interview by CW Nevius with newspaper columnist and funny man Dave Barry and his decision to end his very popular syndicated weekly column.

In the original San Francisco Chronicle interview, Barry told Nevius that "Newspapers are dead." So ends a 20+-year old column that was syndicated in over 500 newspapers in at least the United States and Canada. Barry says he'll "continue to write occasional columns ... [b]ut not the weekly column."

Barry did say he'll keep blogging, and he's already been podcasting. He jokes that his is so popular that the Miami Herald even wants "the security guard to have a blog." Nevius claims that blogs and podcasts are the "Next Big Thing" in journalism. Nevius also says that the "future is digital" in regards to the direction the newspaper industry must go.

I'm of mixed feelings on this whole matter. I guess I'm from an era that is used to the tactile aspects of reading. That is, being able to hold a book, magazine, or newspaper. On the other hand, I've gone from reading 4-8 newspapers daily in the late 1980s to now reading absolutely none at all on a regular basis.

When I do read, I always pick a newspaper (Saturday or Sunday edition) rather than visiting their website. If I'm searching for something online and come across the website of a newspaper, I'll read the article. I tried subscribing to a daily summary for two newspapers, but I find myself ignoring these summaries. And why would I ever pay money to subscribe online if the information can be had for free?

That said, however, if there were some easy delivery mechanism with which I could print out a customized newspaper edition daily, and which gives me only the types of news (and advertising) that I'm interested in, and which is easy to pay for online (say via Paypal), I'd probably subscribe.

Hmm. Why couldn't RSS/ Atom be harnessed to produce a special edition? Programmers have already created XSL stylesheets to convert XML into PDF. It shouldn't be that much harder to tweak those XSL stylesheets to manipulate a full-text RSS/ Atom XML feed into PDF or some other appropriate, possibly SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics).

The problem with generating such special editions is that you no longer have regionalized newspapers playing the publishing game. Every publisher is potentially competing for every online reader in the world. Now if someone got on the ball they could broker news online from different print publishers and newswire services.

These brokers would aggregate the information and deliver it all online in a handy package daily, such as as via PDF or SVG file. Each custom daily edition could be downloaded to a PDA, an ipod-like text reading device, or electronic paper. If some online service did this, e-newspapers might take off. And then, popular columnists like Dave Barry wouldn't throw in the towel.

The glut of free, full-text information is more than likely the reason print newspapers have been suffering readership decreases. So of course, my point is, if newspaper publishers (and journalists) want to survive, they need to reduce the quantity of free full-text information, offering premium content only through subscribed feeds or news brokers. That or buy out consumer electronics companies and also go into the business of selling the reading devices, permanently offering the news for free digitally, and never cutting down another tree.

Links/ Sources: Dave Barry: Newspapers Are Dead, Dave Barry Won't Resume Column, Continues Blog, San Francisco Chronicle - Podcasts, Blogs and Dave Barry, Dave Barry's blog.

Technorati Tags: rsscases, rss cases, newspaper syndication, content syndication, syndicated columns, Dave Barry

I'm referencing an unscientific, possibly obscure source, but in the past week, I've been seeing a TV ad for Vaseline Intensive, to soothe chapped hands. In this ad, they're surveying men and women on the street about how long they can go without touching another person. Most of them said they couldn't go more than a few hours. Let's face it. Human being are tactile creatures.

As someone who has been typing on a typewriter or computer keyboard since 1977, I know that I still crave the feel of a newspaper, book or magazine any day over online reading. Our hands have several acupuncture points. I'm not an acupuncturist of course, but I know that casual use of printed reading materials do massage several of those points, especially in the palms - something does not happen with typing, beyond any points in the fingertips.

Despite the declarations, I still think we'll have tangible reading material for a long time. (Didn't several someones predict that both TV and radio spelled the end of books?) Newspapers may not be able to give us a hug, but they fulfil that most people aren't even conscious of.

Posted by: raj at February 20, 2006 2:31 PM