Pub Talk
By Rob Yoegel
About Rob
Rob Yoegel takes an active role in North American Publishing Company's online efforts including content, sales, marketing, usability, functionality and vendor relations as Vice President, e-Media. Rob works directly with publishers and editors in developing a consistent strategy from print to online.
A former journalist, Rob has been involved in Internet strategies since 1996 serving as an associate editor of Target Marketing magazine, where he regularly contributed articles related to the Internet, including e-commerce, Web site design/development, e-mail, fulfillment, customer service and marketing integration. He also spent one year as publisher of PhillyTech Magazine, a regional technology magazine published by Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. E-mail him at ryoegel@napco.com or call (215) 238-5344.
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The Print Death Watch Has Begun
I’m starting to think that Andreessen could be more lucky than good. Granted, he went on to make another quick $1.6 billion when he sold his server-management company, Opsware, to HP last year, but this week he told Josh Quittner, Fortune magazine’s executive editor (a former newspaper guy himself), that he has started a death watch for the New York Times.
Andreessen’s arrogance only is outdone by the pathetic admiration Quittner has for the computer geek-turned-investor, who now touts social networking site Ning as his latest project while holding investment interests in Digg and Twitter, both of which I think will end up like Netscape.
Honestly, I get tired of hearing guys like Andreessen talk about the demise of print products. I recall the many proclamations that the Internet would kill print like CDs wiped out cassettes and vinyl. It hasn’t.
I’m guessing that when Mark Andreessen bought his first microwave, he didn’t predict it would be the end of his conventional oven or gas grill. Frankly, things just taste better when cooked at 375 degrees for 40 minutes or put in a smoker for hours and hours on a warm summer afternoon. Like good veal parmesan, a New York strip or barbecued ribs, content on paper that has structure and substance will never get nuked.
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Haha. How stupid do you feel? You should write a followup post to this apologizing to Andreessen who clearly is much more than lucky and who is clearly better at reading the writing on the wall early than most.
Well, I'm not going to take bets on the end of paper. On ~A~ paper like the NYT maybe.... but not ~paper~. I work in a government print shop, and granted that may bias my opinion in strange directions, and I am absolutly loving the "New Paperless Office" that we all work in. The amount of paper we handle in my office alone has gone up three-hundred percent in the last 10 years. And most of that because of the internet. So, No. I don't think paper is going anywhere anytime soon.
The jury is still out on the death march of print.
But I would like to point out to you that MP3s have actually killed the CD. Yes, there is still a small market for vinyl and cassettes out there and CD’s are still being manufactured . But they are not the predominate listening or revenue driver in society today. There are also horses and mules a plenty in this world. You possible can ride horse to work, but most folks drive. The same is happening to digital information distribution. Faster than you can say “electrowetting†there will be flexible epaper that will change the universe of reading and publishing. The Sony ereader, the Amazon Kindle are just the very beginning of the next future for our industry.
I just returned from France and, as I always do, noticed how many people on the plane were reading. Nearly everyone had something to read...books, magazines, newspapers. Sure there were some doing work on their computers, but the vast majority were reading print publications. The printed word is far from dead, and if Andreessen has started a death watch for The New York Times it's going to be a long and lonely watch that will not end for lifetimes to come.
Tom,
Right on! Thanks for reading and writing!
- Rob