Evolution Without Mercy

Jon Fine wrote in Business Week in June that "Newspapers still do some things that can't be replaced." He goes on to say "we're about to find out exactly what those things are."

Fine is talking more about the institutions than the medium.

I have every sympathy for those of us who are lamenting the death of newspapers, the institutions. But those institutions need to save themselves and stop equating their future with the existence of newspaper.

Regarding the medium, I find it surprising that this late in the game people still apparently don't know what those things are that can't be replaced.

If we don't know what they are, it's going to be hard to defend them. Hard to save them.

Which begs another question: why struggle to save outdated technology? Did anyone try to save the LP? I seem to remember pundits saying that digital audio lacked a warmth that only analog audio devices could achieve. But would you consider buying an LP today?

The challenge in the future of news is not to save newspaper, not to save the vehicle, but to save the stories, the reporting and the news. That's the real challenge. Next to that, the struggle to save newspapers looks like at distraction. A sideshow.

Anyone who reads newspapers will tell you that they won't go digital because they love the feel of the paper, the ability to carry it around and read it on the train.

But when a digital device does these things better than paper, newspapers will disappear. The institutions will evolve or die. Hopefully the best will evolve. Inevitably some will go under. But the paper itself will disappear.

Then the really useful qualities of newspapers will be challenged. We do know what some of those are. Serendipity. The ability to find stories that you weren't looking for. But news Web sites and Twitter provide that service too. And they will get better at it.

So what are the "things that can't be replaced"?

I suspect we'll wake up one morning and realize there aren't any.

January 14th 2009 update: TechCrunch: Large Form iPod Touch To Launch in Fall ‘09