Here's another obituary for newspapers. Most of us would find it difficult to think of anyone in their 20s who has ever bought a newspaper, something that will look as out of date as a telegram within the next few years.
Now an Australian futurist, Ross Dawson, has predicted that the newspaper as we know it will be dead by 2022. People will get their news from iPads and portable devices which he says will cost as little as $10. Actually, I think that's too much. My bet is newspapers will be giving their readers portable reading devices free of charge. That's certainly cheaper than running printing presses.
And the shape of what passes for news will be very different. More journalism will be crowdsourced, with more amateurs contributing overseen by professionals.
That seems to be the point taken up by Internet commentator Clay Shirky. He tells Decca Aitkenhead in The Guardian that "people are more creative and generous than we had ever imagined, and would rather use their free time participating in amateur online activities such as Wikipedia – for no financial reward – because they satisfy the primal human urge for creativity and connectedness."
The Internet taps into that which is why more people now are getting their news from RSS feeds and blogs.
This means that newspapers will have to reinvent themselves. Already we have predictions from PricewaterhouseCoopers that the interactive gaming industry will be driving the media's growth. It's only a matter of time before large media organisations get into that space.
no comment untill now