So the latest development in the Old Media vs. New Media war is the Associated Press moving to restrict the use of their content on various web sites, which has of course upset those who believe in "free information sharing" in addition to the owners of the individual web sites themselves. In light of several newspapers having closed over the past year (or being in danger of same), the usual talk from the "tech world" has been around the newspaper industry having "dropped the ball" due to not having embraced technology enough or just going along with the program.

 

However I think that this viewpoint is too simplistic, because you can't necessarily say that the reason the newspapers are struggling is due to "copyright wars", lack of demand or not embracing technology.

 

Just think about it: what is the biggest reason why people aren't spending as much on newspaper subscription as they did in the past? The answer? Not only can you get news online for free, you can get it much faster online to such an extent that by the time the morning paper arrives you may have read all of those stories online the day before.  I still receive the paper version of the WS,J but by the time it arrives I've already read everything in it online the day before so it goes right into my recyclable bin. I used to pay for the NY Times, but now that I can read all of their articles online for free there is no point in paying for the physical version of the newspaper.

 

So the real reason newspapers are disappearing isn't because they don't "get it", it's because in the online world their product effectively has little to no value. A newspaper can embrace everything the techie world wants, put the publication online, allow it to be shared with any web site, etc, but due to the delivery method it's much harder to turn a profit.