Was the down fall so hard to predict? I'm thinking not. After I read this article, I saw that not only is the internet the murderer, but it was not the originator.
History repeats itself, and if that's true (which I believe it is) then the newspapers publishers and "powers that be" should have had an emergency back up plan. Long before the US sunk into a recession, the newspaper business was in trouble. Why? Enter the World Wide Web.
Here's the old saying: "Why buy the cow when the milk is free." Let's alter that a bit. Why pay for a subscription when you already pay for the internet and you can read the news for free online?
Read that article. You'll read about the papers wanting to get you the news faster. The Miami Herald and Philadelphia Enquirer even experimented with faxing papers.
The big thing was this: the Viewtron. What could that be? Imagine a stoneage Internet. It couldn't be manipulated (you can't move a mouse or go to a Web site) but you could view your news electronically.
Some higher ups didn't like this. AT&T came out with an electronic yellow pages, or rather tried to come out with it, when Sen. Robert Packwood of Oregon said it would cut into his advertising base. He was not cool with the Viewtron. Kind of the same way most publishers and pretty much all printed newspaper people aren't cool with the miserable KO that's going on right now.
I mentioned this earlier, don't blame the recession. Blame the fact that the publications jumped on the wagon too late. They should have milked it for all it was worth. We've only had the internet for a brief period in history (in 1999 I was in 9th grade and most people didn't have anything but dial up, if that).
So, everyone in my business knows that if they make a semi-high salary, they're on the chopping block. If you're under appreciated and underpaid, you're not safe either. If you're severely under appreciated and even more miserably paid, heck, you might be an editor in a few weeks.
The drama continues.
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