Comments on: Writing print's epitaph – v6.5.08 (service pack 3)

By: Denise Cheng

Denise Cheng — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 13:53:23 +0000

I agree that broadcast media might be accessed solely from the Internet, but I don’t believe that of print media. I should say, not all print media. Newspapers will go, but I magazines will not lose their print importance. Magazines really aren’t only about the printed text. They’re a synesthetic experience of visual and tactile. There is a satisfaction to that which newspapers can’t seem to give as many people and an eTablet definitely will not be able to replace. The biggest obstacle to this will be, as Niles said, peak oil and access to environmental resources. I can only see people giving up their magazines where the cost of a print magazine becomes prohibitive because prices reflect the true environmental and labor costs of production.

By: 71.115.210.241

71.115.210.241 — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 22:05:45 +0000

The irony here is that the comments are coming from Ballmer, whose company is fighting for its life, just as our industry is.

By: 99.204.23.185

99.204.23.185 — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 21:49:04 +0000

Sheesh. Consider the source. For those having trouble placing the Post story in the proper context, it’s interesting to consider that in August 1995 with the release of Windows 95 there was included along with the operating system disk a CD with a digital version of Bill Gates’ book The Road Ahead. What was remarkable about the original edition of The Road Ahead was that nowhere in the few hundred pages of Gates’s sage-style vision of our collective digital future was there any mention of the Internet. This at a time when almost everyone in the IT realm was not only aware of the Internet but viewed it as an oncoming locomotive. It should also be noted, this from Microsoft’s own anecdotal evidence, that among the pantheon of Microsoft’s very smart guys Steve Ballmer has never been considered the sharpest knife in the drawer. Frankly, if I wanted a prediction on the future of media I could probably find a just as well informed opinion by asking someone at random in a line at Starbuck’s.

By: Eric Mankin

Eric Mankin — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:39:59 +0000

Interesting article. However the stuff about print:

>Unfortunately for publishers, home printing technology hasn’t advanced as fast over the past decade as other computing technology, and the day when end users will be able to print professional quality news publications at home for less than the current cost of home delivery appears as remote as ever.

seems a little misdirected.

Nobody in a home wants to print out an entire publication, though they may well want to save & print a story or a crossword puzzle for various uses.

But what people do want to do is to be able to have more flexibility regarding where & how they read – in bed, bathroom, the yard, the beach, etc.

And the solution that’s in the technological works is ‘e-paper,’ a cheap flexible, portable, bright display-display only reader. The Kindle being marketed by Amazon is a step in this direction, but is not yet the killer ap version. But it’s in the works.