The decline of newspapers

Is a probable predicament per prognosticating, perspicacious pundits. Indeed, "p" words aside, newspapers have been in bad shape for some time now. Circulation, advertising and overall revenues across the industry have suffered a sustained fall. The New York Times affirmed the gravity of the situation yesterday when it announced that starting in 2011, online readers would be able to access a limited number of articles before having to pay to continue, a step mirrored by few other newspapers.

Is this finally the death knell for newspapers? It's unlikely. Newspapers are a tenacious breed. Though I personally have doubts about their long-term prospects, extinction is still a long way off. For starters, no one knows how readers will respond to the Times's online subscription program. It may be a success, in which case newspapers nationwide would have a new model for financial resiliency.

Furthermore, newspapers are well aware that they struggle to keep pace with television and Internet news outlets. They are also aware, however, that this actually leaves them occupying a relatively uncrowded niche. The frenetic pace with which electronic media produce news often means that the depth and overall quality of the reporting suffers. The quest for immediacy sometimes claims distance and perspective as victims.

Newspaper reporters frequently find themselves working on deadlines measured in hours instead of minutes. This affords them more time to work on their stories and frequently leads to better-contextualized articles with a firmer grasp of the big picture. Are there exceptions to this generalization? Of course there are. On the whole, though, newspapers occupy an important, even irreplaceable place in public life. And if they do someday go by the wayside, it will almost assuredly be due to economics and not any intrinsic fatal flaw.

In other news, U.S. Chess Champion Hikaru Nakamura drew his game today at the Corus tournament in Wijk Aan Zee against the number-one rated player in the world, Magnus Carlsen of Norway. Said Carlsen in a postgame interview, "In a short time Hikaru has become one of my main rivals." And did I mention they are twenty two and nineteen years old, respectively?