Newspaper vs. Internet

There's a problem with having everything be web-based, something people know if they've ever been working in an environment where their work relies on having a network connection. What if you can't get online? What if there's a problem with the website? What happens when the 10-year-old Cambodian hacker's consortium finally gets 'lucky' with their SuperVirus? What happens when their grown-up analogues finally put together the magic macro? No, newspapers still have a role to fill, redundancy if nothing else, and even if you're not NASA, you can still appreciate the wisdom of having a 'fallback', juuuust in case something goes haywire with the main engine, there. Search engines and web-news and mobile media are all good and fine, but there's another function that newspapers serve, namely continuity. Public record. Archives. Yes, you can access those more freely through the web, but what happens if the parent company 'goes away', and stops archiving that daily edition? Newspapers can also assign professional writers to a given subject or issue and maintain coverage over an extended period, whereas freelance 'web'-sters grow fickle and tend to move to the Next Big Thing with great rapidity. I think you tend to find a higher grade of professional writing in the newspapers than on the web, because some of these folks went to journalism school (and graduated with good grades), where the web-newsies publish things of questionable quality and value. I welcome the addition of news sites that are only available through the dubdubdub, but I think it would be dumbdumbdumb to become exclusively reliant on the Internets. In neither medium, electronic or 'dead tree', is there any legal or moral obligation on the part of publishers to be honest, ethical, or thorough in their work. Reader, beware. But, also beware of people trying to 'push' for digital exclusivity. At the end of the day, when the lights go off, hypothetically speaking, you can pick up your newspaper, and walk outside, and continue to read it. The same can't necessarily be said of the internet, unless your wireless connection, your computer, and the host where you connect are all on battery backup. Nothing can go wrong. Go wrong. Go wrong. Go wrong. Go.... Klaatu marachas necktie

When I was a little guy at home on a Sunday morning I was the one who listened to the slight bang on the front porch. It was the paper boy and he was a good shot. The Sunday Globe crashed against the wall rolled up as it was and not damaged. I picked it up and brought in it to take out the funnies section which usually was on the very front of the wrappings. The Boston Globe in the forties was a huge publication, containing tremendous ads for from canaries in the pet sections to automobiles in the final slots. You name it and it was there in the Globe.
Sunday morning at the breakfast table dad would burry himself in the sports section, while mom got chow ready. Then after the sports were read the articles and editorials sections were to be viewed. World War Two was going on at the time and it was 1943. My primary interest was in reading the latest “Terry and The Pirates” and “The Phantom.” and along with Al Capps “Lil Abner” of course.
That was yesteryear, many years ago. Now we have the computer as well as the newspaper. Newspaper and other publications not willing to be out done by computers competed by the placing of information of every day events and advertising joined in on the wagon trip to oblivion. The very fact of them entering the Net was the very beginning of their demise. “Why buy a paper when I can read about the highlights of local and world news on the net?”
The same can be said of the magazine industry, publications such as this excellent “Mother Jones.” Right this very minute I am on the computer, and it is Sunday morning at 10.AM.