Rocky Mountain News: Final Edition
Another important newspaper dies.
Sure, models change and things are gained too. But things are also lost. Denver is definitely the worse for this. You've got to worry it'll be publishers and libraries in ten years.*
*Both are suffering now—witness the recent HarperCollins layoffs and the Philadelphia closings, but Newspapers are in really deep trouble.
Sure, models change and things are gained too. But things are also lost. Denver is definitely the worse for this. You've got to worry it'll be publishers and libraries in ten years.*
*Both are suffering now—witness the recent HarperCollins layoffs and the Philadelphia closings, but Newspapers are in really deep trouble.
Labels: newspapers, print culture
posted by Tim at 11:43 PM
4 Comments:
There are some mournful reflections on book publishing in the current London Review of Books:
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n04/robi06_.html
A terrific video - and affle, that's a great article, too. Books do have one thing over newspapers: it's well worth it to most readers to pay for a printed copy. What they lack is obsolescence. The swapping and selling of used books is so efficient these days that there's little incentive to buy new books - whereas there's no market for yesterday's newspaper.
How fascinating that we live in an era of such abundance - more people are writing, more books are being published, and we have more ways to share them - but (as with the news business) those very qualities threaten the way things have been done and we don't yet have any clear way forward that will reward those who produce the news and good books sufficiently to replace the old models for publication.
One of the things I fear most is a world without books. That's why my library will be preserved for as long as possible, as it is one of my goals to leave them for future generations... even if publishing houses close their doors forever. God forbid.
-Philip Troy
I'm a native Coloradan who has been reading the Rocky for 40 years. It feels like a death in the extended family not to have my Rocky waiting in the driveway to go with my coffee. Somehow a computer screen just isn't the same.
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