Newspapers Die?

I refer to an article in Todayonline.com (Top News // Weekend, March 14, 2009) :

"You’ve been warned:if newspapers Die ... Companies will see sales slump, citizens will make important decisions in the dark" http://www.todayonline.com/articles/307448.asp ( hopefully the link still work over time)

In my opinion, the writer was trying to bring out the point that Newspaper is still important to the society. Who can deny that?... The question is, is Newspaper refers to Paper or is Newspaper refers to News?

If the "Newspaper" company still don't get the answers right and do the right things, ..... it will be very difficult to progress..... progress is the willingness to leave something behind and to pick up something ahead...

History tells us what will be in the future because history repeats itself..... not something I made up but from great people of all times in every part of the world. Hence, in my understanding, News will not die and cannot die.......but Paper, which is only a form of material that holds the news can be facing some fierce competition. And I can say that Internet is the very direct competitor. And if so, history tells us that material we use changed over time, but Human characteristics, Basic Needs and the needs to have NEWS will still be needed.

To cut things short, my 2 cents for the Newspaper companies is to focus on the Distribution & Contents of the News and not the Material that contains it. Look at it in another angle. Don't resist technology like Internet because it is open and.... threatening to the old way of doing things and old business model..........

I am very sure that papers will exist for a very very very very very long time (you can see how I emphasized its existence duration). Over thousand years, we are still using woods, bamboos and canes....... think about it.

I do not have the answers for the Newspaper companies, (of course, if I have, I would not be here. Or even if I have, no one will believe me either :)), but if you look back a few hundred years ago, not everyone read newspaper..... BECAUSE NOT EVERY ONE IS LITERATE!

For those IT companies, don't be despair in your current endeavours too, BECAUSE NOT EVERY ONE IS TECHNOLOGY SAVVY! And the infrastructure is still in its infancy, if I would say. We are now living in a "transition" era.

But deep inside we know that there are always a better way of doing things. And over times, we will change and adapt..... again, the history tells me that..:)

Enjoy the following video :) Feel free to reach out to me to discuss and chat on topics about Internet and the Current World. Thanks.