Monday, March 14, 2011

...and it was ALWAYS just a matter of time.

It's official. Print is dead.

OK, maybe that was just a tad dramatic, but with the Pew Research Center report released today showing online news readership and ad revenue had, FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE HISTORY OF NEWS, surpassed its print counterpart in the U.S - I'm sticking with "print is dead".

As the subject line notes, in my opinion it was always just a matter of time. And although I don't feel happy that this likely means even more lost jobs at newspapers, TV stations and magazines; I do know that it is a positive thing when it comes to how we get, share and consume information.

After all, how can you read a newspaper and then share it with all your friends, getting their comments, swapping ideas, etc? Can you "join the conversation" on the 11 o'clock news?

The Pew Research Center report notes that 41 percent of Americans now get "most of their news about national and international issues" from the Internet - which is a 17 percent jump from last year. Only 40 percent claim to get it from offline sources.

The full "State of the News Media" report can be read here, if you want something to cite in your next powerpoint presentation.

As for me, I'm going to go back to reading the news for today. Online.