Posted by chicagomedia.org on October 29, 2008 at 07:04:54:
The paperless newspaper now a reality
The original opening of the TV show "Lou Grant" began with a bird in a tree, the tree chopped down, the wood turned to paper, paper delivered to a publishing plant. Newspapers came off the presses, were delivered, read and then used to line a bird's cage.
That was 31 years ago. If it seemed quaintly inefficient then, it still is, only more so—last night's stories put in your hands this morning at great effort and expense, then disposed of shortly thereafter.
So the Christian Science Monitor's announcement Tuesday that it is largely abandoning print for the Internet in April—giving up daily press runs in favor of a beefed-up Web site, complemented by daily e-mail editions and a weekly print magazine—is intriguing.
"The Christian Science Monitor recognizes that daily print has become too costly and energy-intensive," Editor John Yemma said. "Online journalism is more timely and is rapidly expanding its reach, especially among younger readers. … Our shift … is likely to be watched by others in the news industry as they contemplate similar moves."
It's also a test case to be watched intently by anyone who enjoys flipping pages, or at least need something for the bottom of their pet's cage. There's an end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it vibe in the news business lately, exacerbated by continued circulation slides and revenue declines accelerated by the economic crisis.
Everything is in play, not just whether a paper has to be on paper.
Papers, including this one and others owned by Tribune Co., have said they are contemplating giving up The Associated Press, once a vital organ, as they review costs and needs. CNN, meanwhile, is trying to launch a wire service to serve newspapers the way it feeds local TV stations.
The nation's largest newspaper publisher, Gannett Co., which has run a famously tight financial ship, said Tuesday it's laying off 10 percent of its workforce at local papers, just months after a previous 10 percent cut.
The world's largest magazine publisher, Time Inc., is poised for a massive reorganization, according to a memo to staff from Ann Moore, its chairman and chief executive. And, according to NYTimes.com, that efficiency will include elimination of about 6 percent of the company's workforce.
So when you add up the costs of traditional publishing in manpower, energy, time and even the environment, the idea a newspaper has to be on paper is as outdated as thinking albums would remain on vinyl.
Just last week at a conference in California, New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. was asked if there would be a print edition of the Old Gray Lady in a decade.
"The heart of the answer must be we can't care," Sulzberger said. "We do care. I care very much. But we must be where people want us for our information. It's the thought of cannibalizing yourself before somebody else cannibalizes you. So that's one answer."
The Monitor enjoys a reputation nationally and internationally, but its circulation is less than a quarter of what it was at its 1970 peak of around 220,000. As a money-losing non-profit enterprise subsidized by a church and relying primarily on the mail for distribution, it is an ideal national-newspaper guinea pig to join a handful of small local papers in this Internet experiment.
"Ad revenues from our Web site and circulation revenue from our print and e-news editions," Monitor Managing Publisher Jonathan Wells said in the announcement, "will form the basis of our business model as the Monitor enters its second century."
The Monitor's first century began in November 1908 as a response to what Christian Science church founder Mary Baker Eddy felt were harsh attacks by Joseph Pulitzer's New York World.
The new Monitor will be borne of a different, far broader siege.
(Phil Rosenthal, Chicago Tribune)