Imagine a world without newpapers

Common Dreams.org News Center has this piece on an increasingly asked question - whither newspapers?:

"Arthur Sulzberger Jr. isn't a household name. But what Mr. Sulzberger thinks about the future of daily newspapers -- including The New York Times, the paper his family publishes -- should matter to all of us.

Last week, Mr. Sulzberger was asked if those of us who still cherish getting our fingers stained by newsprint would have his paper to fold first in half, then in quarters, during our morning commutes five years from now.

It was one of those leading questions often asked of captains of industry at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland. The press-shy publisher was cornered by a reporter for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, and perhaps spoke too loosely."

And:

"These are tough times for newspapers and everybody knows it. The business model that Ben Franklin took for granted while cranking out his colonial broadsheets is now a money-losing anachronism.

We don't need Sulzberger to tell us that a whole generation of prospective readers has already migrated to cyberspace and cable TV for news and opinion -- our own internal surveys confirm this along with our dwindling profits."

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