Print Media Asks to be Read Final Rites
All
this talk of baby boomers and senior citizens was making me fall asleep. You,
too, no doubt. So let’s talk about death instead, just to lighten things up a
bit.
"Print
may not be dead, but print editions are suddenly dying at an unprecedented
rate." Well-put, Erik
Sass. He’s talking about the folding
of Child magazine, an embarrassing failure for Meredith Corp, trailing not far
behind the story of Life magazine in its
final hours. (For the second time.) What’s up with Time, yo? Laying
off 300 magazine workers?
Daniel
Okrent of Time, Inc. had this to say at
a lecture at
Death of Print Media?”
And I believe one more thing: I believe that all forms
of print are dead. Finished. Over. Perhaps not in my professional lifetime, but
certainly in that of the youngest people in this room. Remove the question mark
from the title of this talk. The Death of Print, full stop.
There’s
a great scene from
Monty Python and the Meaning of Life when the Grim Reaper enters the room where
a dinner party is taking place and announces, “I’ve come for you. You’re all
dead.” A very clever Englishman replies, “But, Mr. Reaper, how can we all have
died at the same time?” He merely points a gnarled finger at the dinner table
and declares, "The salmon mousse."
Well,
it appears that magazines and newspapers are both partaking in the mousse. It’s
no secret that newspapers are sinking, sinking. Declining circulations + stagnating
ad revenue = slow death. Even our beloved SF Chronicle is in
trouble these days. Yet editors of major newspapers are still insisting that
the medium, much like Kate Winslet, “will go on.” Where is this rampant optimism
coming from? That water is damn cold!
Something to note: perhaps we can partake in after-life
mints. Both Child and Life magazine will remain active online, the latter as a photo
portal, housing a collection of 10 million images. Lose one thing, gain
another. I like that idea – rebirth. It’s almost pleasantly Buddhist.
