Time: The Next 10 Newspapers to Go Online or Fold
Whether they brought it on themselves by an increasingly lousy product and poor business mofel or not, it’s still jarring to see…
Time Magazine has compiled its list of the 10 major daily newspapers that face either going completely digital or folding. As a new media guy and a capitalist red in tooth and claw, it’s been very easy to see and to point out that without major revisions, the traditional media model is fast driving people out of business. That said, it’s been crushing to see some of the big names go down: The Rocky Mountain News, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer…forget the newspapers, it’s like hearing that the cities don’t exist anymore. It’s not as crushing to hear they’ve gone completely digital, just a little awkward - but jarring at a bare minimum. The list includes:
1. The Philadelphia Daily News
2. The Minneapolis Star Tribune
3. The Miami Herald
4. The Detroit News
5. The Boston Globe
6. The San Francisco Chronicle
7. The Chicago Sun Times
8. NY Daily News
9. The Fort Worth Star Telegram
10. The Cleveland Plain Dealer
I’m utterly shocked that the Kansas City Star is not on that list, and it’s crushing to see my beloved Star Telegram included. Of course, who listens to Time anymore, anyway?
I grew up in a household built from traditional media (my dad worked in radio), so this is the culmination of a slow-motion train wreck for about the last 15 years. Doesn’t make the actual wreck any easier to stomach when it happens.
Traditional media, it’s time to start leveraging your online assets to the max, find a fair and good model for online subscriptions and get off your high horse about your past circulation and reach if you want to spare yourselves and the rest of the world more freak shows.