Since the dawn of the internet era (the mid 90′s), experts have speculated that the world of paper would go away. Everything would be digital. No newspapers, magazines, brochures, even business cards. 

While a lot has shifted to the web, I still dont think the world of paper will go away 100%. 

Both the New York Times, and Seth Godin mentioned recently that newspapers are dying. Godin went as far to say that by 2012, no significant newspaper will be printed in news print. 

So being the environmentalist, tree-hugging hippy I am. Im glad. I think newspapers (and phonebooks while im at it) are a HUGE waste of paper. Most readers skim for articles, and I would guess they never read most of the paper. So now what? 

While I’m glad they are going away. I still want to know how most newspapers plan to survive (if they plan at all). In our town of 30k people, we have at least 4 unique news sources. 3 have a printed medium, and online presence, while the 4th is online only. Who will survive? How does one news source gain the readership of enough people to pay the bills? Have they ignored the naysayers from the 90′s too long, and are now scrambling to find a foothold online?

So here it is, Earth day, and I’m torn. I’m glad to see less paper waste, but I’m also stuck on how to fix the issue of bringing a newspaper online, and how to market that client so they have the same readership / revenue that they once had. Is it even possible? 

I dont actually offer any answers today, but I hope to address these issues soon in future posts. You know, just incase one of our local news media sources wants to engage us in marketing and web development to aid their transition.