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Perhaps it isn't all doom and gloom

"Goodness knows, I’m not one to complain, and I’m sure you’re not the sort to, either, but aren’t you growing just a bit tired of reading about the demise of newspapers—in the papers themselves? It’s no wonder readership is down. Who has the patience to hear endless whining about someone else’s misfortune when your own fortunes are rickety? This is not to say that the health and vigor of the nation’s dailies are not vital to the intellectual health and vigor of the commonwealth as a whole, or that newspapers aren’t an essential force in keeping a watchful eye on corrupt politicians and venal corporate overlords—neither of which are in short supply these days. I would also hope you feel that the loss or even weakening of the nation’s principal daily, The New York Times, would mark an end to life as we know it. The Internet is partly to blame for all of this, and perhaps micro-pricing or gated content will be part of the solution. “Youthing” down a paper to attract 21-year-olds isn’t the answer: the only way you’re ever going to get the average 21-year-old to read a daily newspaper is to wait 9 years until he’s 30. My suggestion to newspapers everywhere is to give the public a reason to read them again. So here’s an idea: get on a big story with widespread public appeal, devote your best resources to it, say a quiet prayer, and swing for the fences."

Says who? None other than the editor of Vanity Fair. Only time will tell who is right in all of this increasingly vibrant debate. Read the complete piece from VF here.

Meanwhile, the Sun King, good ol' Rupert, is reported as saying that all newspapers will be digital within 10 years. The SMH reports:

"News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch, one of the staunchest believers in the future of newspapers, expects nearly all of them will be delivered electronically within a decade, with print editions of even flagship papers such as The Wall Street Journal to eventually disappear.

''We think of newspapers in the old-fashioned way, printed on crushed wood so to speak, [but] it's going to be digital,'' the 78-year-old media mogul said on Monday in an interview on News Corp's Fox Business channel in the US.

''Within 10 years I believe nearly all newspapers will be delivered digitally [either on computers or electronic reading devices]," he added."

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