In my tech class we talked about the recent layoffs at the Tacoma News Tribune and other local newspapers. It brought to mind the failure of the King County Journal newspapers in early 2007. The group of small community newspapers (I think there were three papers they published?). Their circulation had fallen, and yet a year or two before they made the decision to build a huge in Kent, WA. Everyone wondered why, when newspapers were not doing well, a newspaper company would spend so much money on a new building. Sure enough, a little bit later they went under.

Personally, I think that unless newspapers find some way to make themselves relevant, on the web or otherwise, they will go under. I had a subscription to the Seattle Times earlier this year, and I just never got around to it. The only paper I usually read was the Sunday edition, and even then, I never got through the whole thing. I continued to get my news online while having the subscription. The paper got delivered to the community foyer in the apartment building and my neighbors stole my paper one too many times. I canceled. The called me a couple times a day, despite requests not to, until I got fed up and angrily called them. Their customer service was enough to make me not want to subscribe again.

Another reason I think that newspapers will adapt or go under is the issue of money. Why would I want to pay for the news I read, when I can get it online from blogs and the local news channel websites? Why would I pay money to post something in the classified ads when I can post to something better (CraigsList) for free? It makes the newspaper subscription seem even more unimportant. I don't know how the print media companies can adapt, other than make good websites (I hate when sites are disorganized and poorly built!) and possibly lower the prices of their product.

One cool thing that I've found online, that I think could help print media, is MagHound. MagHound is a website that is sort of like NetFlix but for magazines. You pay a low fee ($4.95 for two mags/month I think- it goes up depending on how many you want). There are a few weekly mags that are "premium" and you have to pay $1.50 extra/month. You can get a bunch of magazines (they add more every week! and you don't have to send them back) and you can switch around which mags you get each month. I like to read a variety of magazines while I'm at the gym, but I like to mix it up and they can get expensive (People is like $5!). They have a great variety of cooking, news, gossip, health, etc mags. I think this is a business model that can work, and so far I like it a lot. I pay like $10/month for 5 subscriptions (11 magazines! 2 mags are every week, the other three are once per month).

The only thing that scares me about getting news online is credibility. The EPIC movie said something along the lines of "the news people get is the news they want to hear." I worry that with people getting news from opinion blogs, that we lose some of the facts. I don't know how much journalistic integrity is involved with print media right now, but I know that tv can be really bad and the internet can be worse. Think of the "Obama is a MUSLIM!" rumors that were spread by blogs on the internet... I think this aspect of the internet could get very scary.