Robinsons’ Galleria
6:27 PM
Today’s Inquirer editorial talks about the “last newspaper boom” in Asia, and it kind of gets me thinking – again – about a thought that has been brewing in my head for the past few months: the “death” of the newspaper. In stream of thought form.
Is it the death of the newspaper and media institutions? Have we entered the age of citizen journalism? Is traditional media experiencing its last gasps? Believe the hype if you will, but for everything wrong I said about traditional media, I’m not counting on its death just yet.
The idea is that media outfits like newspapers are businesses, and in a time of economic crisis, businesses flounder. Newspaper vendors on sidewalks will tell you “matumal ang benta,” and newspapers are probably concerned about bloggers like myself “taking over” readers. It seems that more and more people are turning to blogs for information, and very probably, traditional media views new media as a threat to its existence. Rather than look at this as a clash of the titans and of the “victory” of blogging, I’d like to take a more detached view of the matter.
I don’t buy into the idea of the “death of newspapers.” Newspapers will change, but they will not be crushed under the mighty heel of bloggers. More than that, I do not think the proliferation of Web content is responsible for “killing” the newspaper, or that the blog is the “death knell” to traditional media. The newspaper will not die; it will change, but it will not die.
Here’s why… hey, that rhymed.
