Today marked the last edition of the Rocky Mountain News, a print newspaper that has been in business almost 150 years. While I am saddened by its demise, it does make me ponder the ways technology and society have changed how we receive and seek out information.
For myself, I’m a news junkie. I grew up with parents that received multiple newspapers and I still read the news every day. But I don’t subscribe to or purchase a newspaper. My own experience has been that once I’ve read the paper, I have to make time to recycle it and they clutter up my house (more so than before). I don’t need the hard copy and it’s actually a nuisance.
Instead I read my news online in multiple locations.
The advent of being able to access your news at your leisure and for free as well as different delivery mechanisms like electronic subscription, etc., have changed the way many people I know get their information.
But now the newspaper publishers are faced with a bad economy on top of ever dwindling subscription numbers which, in turn, affect advertising revenue. I’m not sure they will survive even the next decade. It’s sad, indeed, but I’m not sure how they can cope with the changes to society and technology without making changes that may mean electronic only.
We’re on cusp of changes and I mourn the past. But I can only look forward to the future.
