the decline of print media

The threat of the internet making newspapers and magazines obsolete is an idea that's been mentioned before, here and there. But it's a notion that has been generally dismissed because people claim they'd still rather hold the paper in their hands, to turn the pages and to be able to absorb the colors. This may be true in the days of crappy mobile internet, but with the rapidly improving technology: laptops are getting smaller and slimmer, mobile broadband internet is becoming more and more common, mobile phones are now becoming more and more adapt at surfing the web, you'd have to be pretty naive to think reading stuff on a screen would be too troublesome or "not as effective/efficient" as reading it in print.

I for one, spend my morning busrides to work reading news on the iphone. I have iGoogle's mobile web as my home page and on that thing I get access to all the latest news headlines. In a few years, everyone's mobile phone will be connected to the internet and have a giant screen. Would you still need to pick up the local papers if you can log onto NYtimes.com?

ESPN Sportswriter Bill Simmons tackled this issue recently and this is what he wrote:

"For the past few years, as newspapers got slowly crushed by myriad factors, a phalanx of top writers and editors fled for the greener pastures of the Internet. The quality of nearly every paper suffered, as did morale. Just two weeks ago, reports surfaced that the New York Times Company (which owns the Globe) was demanding $20 million in union concessions or it'd shut down the Globe completely. I grew up dreaming of writing a sports column for the Globe; now the paper might be gone before I turn 40. It's inconceivable. But this Garnett story, and how it was (and wasn't) covered, reminds me of "The Wire," which laid out a blueprint in Season 5 for the death of newspapers without us fully realizing it. The season revolved around the Baltimore Sun and its inability (because of budget cuts and an inexperienced staff) to cover the city's decaying infrastructure. The lesson was inherent: We need to start caring about the decline of newspapers, because, really, all hell is going to break loose if we don't have reporters breaking stories, sniffing out corruption, seeing through smoke and mirrors and everything else. That was how Season 5 played out, and that's why "Wire" creator David Simon is a genius. He saw everything coming before anyone else did."

The thing is, newspapers and magazines are in danger for more than just the simple reason that "reading online is more convienient and cheaper". The fact of the matter is the internet is eliminating the need for certain type of journalists.

Back in the old days before the internet (I shudder at the thought of that now), sports fans relied on their local paper's beat writers for insider info on their team and its players. Beat writers got to hang out in the lockers, see practices, attend games while sitting near the team, etc. They were the bridge between us hardcore sports fans and the people we follow so passionately.

But the internet has changed all that. Thanks to sportscenter, google, facebook and twitter, beat writers are no longer required. We sports fan can get up-to-the-minute recap of games in sportscenter, internet forums (complete with video footage) or friend's facebook/twitter status updates (a few weeks ago I dared my friend Will Vuong to do a running diary of the Laker/Rockets game 7 on his facebook status. He actaully followed through on it and was updating his status every 3 minutes. Others not only didn't find it ridiculous, they were following it and commenting on it accordingly). In the old days, if you missed a game, you must get the paper the next day to read the recap. First you read the summary of the game, then you check the boxscore for stats, then you read the beat writer's report from the lockers postgame. They painted the picture for you. Jordan kills NYC with a dagger followed by a fistpump? You read about it through the tortured words of a NYC writer. Now, athletes are openly blogging and twitting, some even upload videos online to communicate with fans (aka shamelessly plug themselves). Gilbert Arenas did it a few years ago when he preached for people to vote for him. Chris Bosh apparently wants to be a comedian after his playing days cause he be uploading skits of himself acting a fool. The RuPaul of Big Men. HA.

This goes beyond sports and sportswriting. The same crisis can be found in other areas of journalism. Beat writers for local sports team are in danger of extinction the way music journalists are. In the hit TV series That 70s Show, Topher Grace's main squeeze Donna Pinchiotti dreamt of being a traveling rock and roll journalist. Is that even possible in this day and age? With videos of gigs popping up on youtube an hour after the gig and music blogs galore, do we need to wait a week or month to read about how rad a gig was? Artists can talk to fans directly, they can filter the info and manage their reputation online. Megastars can block access and only put out what they want people to see. Kobe and Lebron are faker than the PRs and the dining writers on a Thurs night in SoHo.

They can essentially eliminate the middleman--journalists.

We've already seen casualties in print media. Blender folded recently (even though like Maxim, it was overly pretentious "hey-look-we're-hip" crap), Rolling Stone broke away from its trademark "giant sized" format and now looks and feels like a mag you'd read while taking a shit and leave it next to the toilet instead of something you’d frame on your wall. Ad sales for local mags are plunging (or so I've heard.... not that I would know anything because shit, the local mags here are so into face they make up fake names in mastheads and give out free ads)

It'll take a while, but newspapers and magazines are in danger. It's scary, because I feel most of us so called journalists—especially the HK ones—are overrated. The only thing that separates us from the average blogger is we're in print. So one day when we're all online...you'd have to work twice as hard to figure out who's legit and who's not, right? And even then, legit doesn't equal entertaining.

So what's gonna happen to us?

I’m just blabbing…It's 4am and I can't sleep. As usual. I haven't slept more than 4 hours a night the past two weeks.