Mediamorphosis: Every so often, the print media go into panic about the print media. [...]
With exceptions such as China and India, the (slow) decline of the newspaper business is a worldwide trend. The big mistake that newspapers in America, Europe and Latin America have made in response to the new environment is to treat this trend as a financial and a technological challenge rather than a cultural phenomenon. [...]
The newspaper industry's response over the past decade -- and Knight-Ridder is a good example, but not the only one -- has consisted mainly of two things: restructuring finances and providing online versions of print products. [...]
The cultural change taking place with regard to information amounts to a decentralization of power. [...]
People want more control over what they read, watch or hear. Some organizations have understood this. [...]
Folks have discovered that they can make for themselves the type of selection that the traditional newspaper has made for them since the 17th century. Readers realize they can participate in the selection process by creating their own information mix. For the moment, this means jumping from one online outlet to the other according to the various items the reader seeks.
In the old days, they used to call it choice and freedom. Today we call it murder. But nobody killed the newspaper. It's just that information, which used to flow from the top down, is now starting to flow from the bottom up.
