LAT pressman/blogger says paper will cease printing in 3 years...

...or might hang on as long as 5 years, before going completely digital.

http://fryingpannews.org/2011/09/23/paper-tiger-qa-with-l-a-times-pressman-ed-padgett/

 

I just don't think he's that credible.

 

Perhaps not. But would you trust a Tribune Company press release or him if your life depended on it?

 

Minus the historical significance, would anyone really, truly be shocked if this happened?
The movie ads and car ads never really came back after the recession.
Someone, somewhere has set a timer. May or may not be the LAT. But a timer has been set.

 

I think printed newspapers are surviving because they still carry a lot or retailer inserts. I think a lot of retailers think they still have to be in the local newspaper on a weekly basis. But as circulation declines the effectiveness of the inserts will decline- and at the LAT it is down almost half from its peak- then newspapers as we know them will start to disappear.

 

Well, if the bigwig said it in the context of negotiating with the union, we have to understand management will say all kinds of scary things in that context, and not all of them are going to be true -- it's always going to portray the company's finances and the necessity of the applicable employees in the grimmest possible ways. Hey, you pressmen: We're not even gonna need any of you in three years, so you'd better (sign this contract/accept these layoffs)!

So, yeah, I'm very skeptical. Ten years maybe, but I don't think even that if I had to bet on it.

 

Why will they last that long?

 

Because I'm not convinced the current alternatives will result in significant money -- ever. In 10 years, perhaps something new will come around that we cannot even dream of yet.

 

You look in the Saturday edition of my paper and there are still a bunch of full-page ads for car dealers. Down the road, you might see those kinds of ads for home-builders again, too. They're not buying those ads to be charitable -- they're apparently still effective. So with costs (labor, newsprint, printing) all declining, maybe we'll be around for a while ...

 

"Maybe" is the perfect word.

 

If newspapers do continue to publish, who's going to buy them? I teach college journalism, and about three of my 60 students this semester said they pick up a physical newspaper. There are three daily papers -- the local rag, NYTimes and Wall Street Journal -- all available free in multiple locations on campus as well as the campus daily. They still don't read 'em.