The End of Old Media
Thursday, October 30th, 2008
by Brian R
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It’s official, old media is dying a slow and horrible death. Granted we still have successful magazine companies, and newspapers in print, and libraries and bookstores across the country packed full of books, but not for long. Print media as we know it will eventually be gone. Old sources of media will soon be ways of the past. Newspapers, magazines and books will no longer print. Paper copies of publications will be old fashioned collectors items. Now what could possibly prompt this doomsday theory about the old media that so many of us hold dear?
Amazon’s Kindle.
Kindle is a wireless reading devise produced by Amazon. It weighs less than your average paper back book at 10.3 ounces, but it holds over 200 titles. Without ever hooking up to a computer, you can download full length books in about a minute, from anywhere in the world. You can subscribe to newspapers, and every morning will wake up to find the latest issue automatically downloaded onto your Kindle. You can search, browse, and buy from the over 190,000 book titles, most of them being under $10. You can even highlight a word and link directly to the corresponding Wikipedia article, without ever paying for Internet access.
Think about that.
You can now find, buy, read, research, and store a book, without ever leaving your couch. You can essentially carry your entire bookshelf around in your briefcase. Picture this scenario for a moment: an English teacher stands at the front of a classroom discussing the final pages of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He tells his students that their next piece of literature is Hamlet by Shakespeare, and he wants to jump right into it. Instead of telling everyone to have their books in by next Tuesday, all of his students simply click to the stores of their Kindles, type away for a few seconds, download, and a minute later every single student is looking at Act I Scene 1, highlighting funky Shakespearean words and adding electronic notes. No wasted time, no wasted paper, no wasted energy.
That appears to be the future we are headed towards. But I’m torn. This is some pretty cool technology, and could have some serious environmental benefits by saving so much paper. But the end of books? I really don’t like the sound of that.
I’m an avid reader. I have a bookshelf in my room that I like to think of more as a “to do” list. There is nothing more satisfying than turning the last page of a great book, plopping it down on the table, and looking toward the next one on the list. I’m not sure I’ll get the same satisfaction when clicking over to the last page, then clicking it back onto the “bookshelf”, then clicking forward to my next book. It would most definitely take some getting used to.
But what it all comes down to is the words. Books are amazing because of the characters, settings, and plots. Whether it’s a hardcover, paperback, on Kindle, or some other electronic reading devise, those elements will always be there, so reading will always be worth while. I have to get over the fact that actual books are becoming things of the past, and that electronic texts are on their way in. Kindle will help to organize, compress, and store thousands of interesting characters and plots. It will save countless numbers of tress, helping to conserve the environment. It will be able to educate people, enlighten them, and give them easier access to a wider variety of literature.
And no matter what happens, I still get to read, and that’s really all that matters.
Photo Credit: etches-johnson
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9 Comments
lukeMV
November 3rd, 2008
at 11:32am
The “death of print” debate has been around for quite some time now, stemming from the decline of newspaper subscription rates. While, I agree that readership for media such as a newspaper will continue to decline as the Babyboomer generation declines, I think that print and new media will continue to form a partnership…I wrote about this in 2006 (http://tinyurl.com/692q2g). While I do agree that new media will play a more dominant role in the media “war,” I do not think that dedicated devices (ie Kindle) will play a dominant role. Remember, Apple came out with one of the first PDAs in 1992 (The Newton) but it has taken over 10 years for PDAs (via Palm) to become widely used. The key to technology is to consolidate. I remember in 2003 when I had a iPod, cell Phone, and Palm Pilot… the Treo (and now iPhone) is a god-send. Why buy a Kindle when you can download books via the Apple Store on iTunes? In short, though, the “experience” of print is something that I don’t believe will ever be replaced with new media. After all, my book shelves will be bare.
x-print student and future librarian
November 3rd, 2008
at 12:07pm
I am curious why this must be an “either or” argument. Like the previous poster said, the future of the written word will be a combination of print, monitors, e-paper, and whatever we come up with next. Old technologies don’t have to die (yes, printing is a technology). They can change their role or be used in different ways…
As a librarian, I can tell you that e-books, e-journals, etc. WILL be a large part of our society in the future, they just aren’t taking over the world any time soon.
I’d also like to point out that in 1984 Egon from The Ghost Busters movie was quoted saying, ‘the death of print’…So, I wouldn’t hold your breath.
BTW: Very well written article, perhaps you have a future as a librarian…We do more than books… we love technology and the future!
Lindz
November 3rd, 2008
at 12:53pm
Death of print shouldn’t even be a topic for our youth to discuss because it isn’t going to happen… they should spend their time developing alternative energy sources, how to economically turn salt water into drinking water, how to come to agreement with hostile countries, etc.
People will always have a need for print… they like to archive important dates/events (ex. For 9/11, people didn’t print out a New York Times website page to archive in their closet, they grabbed the local newspaper), wallpaper, print is easier on the eyes than a bright screen, and like the author stated it is a nice feeling to turn the last page in a book and physically have it present on your bookshelf. Printed material doesn’t run out of battery, and you don’t have electronic malfunctions. Wireless reading devices won’t be flawless… just think how many times we struggle with technology today!
There is a high chance they will add more frustration to everyday life (when internet fails, power supply is low, gets broken, stolen, functioning slowly…). As for environmental benefits, we’d save paper… but what about all the extra energy required to make an electronic device function. A book can last a pretty long time, a wireless device will probably be replaced every couple of years.
Lastly, print documents our history. What happens if the history of mankind is only in electronic form, and a massive crash of the system occurs?
p.s.- I also agree that this article is well written!
Brian R
November 3rd, 2008
at 10:32pm
I agree that print media will most likely never completely die out. History has always been recorded in print, and it is difficult to imagine a world in which history is recorded electronically. I don’t think that day will ever come, but I can not help but think that e-readers will someday overtake old media sources in terms of viewers. Eventually a company will come out with an e-reader that eliminates the problems critics are finding with current e-readers, and that product will have the potential to become very popular. It may not be the Kindle, and it may not be any time soon, but it’s definitely possible.
As for my generation spending more time solving the worlds problems and less time worrying, I completely agree! My generation is charged with a whole host of problems in the coming years. But there is one connection I can make. The key to solving these world problems is education. If every person has the opportunity to learn reading and writing, then there will be more minds out there that are equipped with the tools to tackle the most daunting global issues. If e-readers can someday be utilized in the education of youth around the world, then that’s a huge benefit. If not, old fashioned printed books need to be made accessible around the world. I’m currently working on a video regarding education and the solving of global problems, so we are definitely spending some time focusing on that.
So old media may not be dying a slow and horrible death, but it is definitely on a collision course with new media, and someday it will be overtaken. But as I said at the end of my article, whether it takes the form of new media or old media, it’s still media, and that’s the important part.
P.S. – Thanks for the compliments! I may just look into becoming a librarian, and if not I am definitely hoping to stay active in the field of technology.
P.P.S. – Does anyone own a Kindle? What do you think of it? I’m interested to hear some opinions from a buyer’s perspective…
RIT's School of Print Media Graduate, Commerical Print Sales Person
November 4th, 2008
at 11:13am
All in all while the Kindle may be a great new technology making the statement “The End of Old Media” is quite bold. Product catalogs, direct mail, usage guides, contractual agreements, and promotional materials have been found by end users to be more beneficial and yield higher response rates when produced in a tangible form.
New medias are going to continue to evolve and change our marketing landscape. However, as new technologies are developed the existing technologies will find new uses and new niches within their marketplace. Back in 2005 I wrote on the development of electronic paper (ie. the Kindle) and how it may or may not integrate into society.
Here is just a quick list going through my head this morning:
1. The Kindle can not go to the beach where sand will destroy it
2. The Kindle can not get wet
3. Reading for hours on screen has been proven to cause serious eyestrain
4. Traveling will require cords and power supplies to keep charged
5. Reading in bright sunlight
6. Not recyclable
In addition, think about the environmental argument that was made. “No wasted time, no wasted paper, no wasted energy.” First of all trees will be harvested regardless of our paper usage. Once a traditionally printed product makes it to the consumer or end user it can then be recycled yielding very little waste. In addition, companies can elect to be carbon neutral, recycle all their manufacturing paper waste and reuse their ink wastes, this would produce a sustainable product as apposed to creating more equipment with many different components, that need battery power and are not able to be recycled. These products will over time become antiquated only to be replaced with new technologies that will again become antiquated exponentially filling our landfills with more waste.
All in all I think this new technology is here to stay. It will compliment the printed form, not replace it.
Antonio Viva
November 4th, 2008
at 9:23pm
I have to agree that the Kindle will never fully replace the inherently human experience that is reading on the beach or in front of a roaring fire. I think the larger point of old media giving way to new media is best characterized by the recent announcement of the Christian Science Monitor moving to a mostly web format. This is an “old media” publication, well respected with seven Pulitzer Prizes that has recognized the need to shift its priorities. The 50,000 print subscribers just couldn’t compete with the over 200,000 online subscribers.
Rethinking the role of new media in the context of a larger human condition is simply a fact of life. We are interconnected to information in a way that has never existed before. How it shapes the evolution of mankind remains to be seen. I for one, still enjoy visiting Barnes and Noble and small independent book shops for a great read. But that could be nothing more than the “old media” English teacher holding on to what is left of the “old humanities.”
lukeMV
November 7th, 2008
at 2:35pm
Interesting post:
http://blog.infotrends.com/wordpress/2008/11/07/obama-win-prompts-additional-newspaper-runs/
Antonio Viva
November 10th, 2008
at 12:51pm
Very interesting article Luke. I have one worth sharing which has a different take on the way the Obama administration may make use of the web as a primary communication tool. As many who followed his campaign directly, there was a marked difference between Obama and McCain’s use of technology.
See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/10/AR2008111000013.html?referrer=emailarticle
Paul Levinson
February 9th, 2009
at 7:15pm
Here’s a video about the decline of old media, from Nov 2007 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqZNGYit3kY