SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
New York Times CEO Mark Thompson says he expects the end of the physical newspaper in 20 years:
The New York Times was founded in 1851, but it would surprise outgoing CEO Mark Thompson if the physical paper made it to 2040.
"I believe the Times will definitely be printed for another 10 years and quite possibly another 15 years — maybe even slightly more than that," Thompson told CNBC's A View from the Top. "I would be very surprised if it's printed in 20 years' time."
More than 900,000 people subscribe to the print version of the newspaper, said Thompson. At its current subscriber levels, the paper could be printed seven days a week at a profit without a single advertisement, he said.
But as readers become more accustomed to reading the Times on smartphones, tablets and computers each year, a printed paper is clearly a dying form. The New York Times Company reported last quarter that total digital revenue exceeded print revenue for the first time ever. Print advertising fell more than 50% year over year from last quarter, driven by both secular declines and the pandemic. Thompson told CNBC he doubts that advertising will ever come back.
"I'm skeptical about whether it will recover to where it was during 2019 levels," Thompson said. "It was already in year-over-year decline for many years. I think that decline is probably inexorable."
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 12 2020, @11:19AM
Negative.
The personalized news is utter garbage and always has been. I subscribe to digital subscriptions but I would never bother with physical. I don't want to deal with more paper waste. There are better ways and digital news is far superior. I can read it on my phone or my tablet or my eInk tablet.. I can share it with my extended family and friends with a click... How do I do that with a physical newspaper? Send in a letter or re-type it? Make a collage?
The only personalizations I get from digital is I can re-order sections of the news according to my interest. I can put International News first and hide the junk Sports section ;) But that's it. I would never hide individual stories just because I may not like them. Hell, I even visit FoxNews.com on occasion to get an idea of what North Korean style propaganda looks like -- Fox is even worse than RT in that regard. And it's easier to read Fox than translating pravda.ru into english.