Is Printed Media About To Die?

A few months ago my wife and I were discussing weather or not to cancel getting our local news paper delivered. We enjoy getting the paper, but were frustrated with a number of things. Our newspaper got bought out by a company in Colorado. The new owners fired half of the staff, cut the newspaper size in half, and starting to raise rates. Another frustration was that when ever we went out town, we would cancel the delivery for the dates we were gone. Our carrier would continue to deliver the paper while we were away, making a huge pile in the driveway. One other concern we had was the amount of paper being wasted and what impact this has on the environment. But even though we had frustrations, I was not ready to depart from getting the news.

After much discussion I convinced my wife to try an online subscription to the newspaper. She was very skeptical. Our paper offers a 6 month online subscription for about the same amount we were paying for one month of hard copy delivery. They offer the full paper viewable in a web browser. Receiving the newspaper in electronic format has been a wonderful change for both of us. For one, we can now view the paper wherever we have a computer with an Internet connection. It really clicked for my wife when we spent Christmas with my parents. They live up in the mountains and what they receive as a paper equals about one small section of our paper. It was great to keep tabs on our local news while being away. Another change for me is that I find myself reading more of the paper than before. I often got annoyed trying to flip the large pages of a conventional paper. It's just never been a user friendly medium to work with. So instead of reading just the front and back of each section, I now at least flip through every page. I also no longer have to go out into the cold and crawl under the car to receive my news. I just log on from the warmth of my desk chair.

Another point that I have on the subject is that there are now various electronic devices that you can download books to read. I have an uncle who is a principal of a new private high school. Instead of spending money on hard copy books, he had the students buy the Sony e-book device. The students now download any books that they need to read for school. Also the ipod touch and iphone have a number of books that can be downloaded. My last thought to add is we've already seen music and movies get assimilated to digital down-loadable format as a perfered method for the masses. So, will print follow suit?