The Million Dollar Question

This question is one that is highly discussed in the world of Journalism in general. Will the traditional print newspaper die out? After speaking with many journalist and reading many opinions, many of them believe that all of the signs are there and that while there is no time table- the print paper will die.  According to Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle, the median age of their subscribers are 56 years old so when they eventually die out and then another question that will arise is where will their subscriptions go? The simple answer to that question is that their subscriptions will decline substantially and then the Chronicle will be faced with a difficult task at hand of cutting the print paper all together to save money or decrease the amount of papers that are being printed. But, the piece of information that stood out to me the most is when Schulman told me his boss described the Chronicle to him as a digital blog with a print version. This was very shocking to me because in the past the San Francisco Chronicle was one of the biggest print papers in the Bay Area but now since the emphasis has been shifted towards online articles, the print paper almost seems like it is no longer needed. But, in the end while Schulman does believe the print paper will eventually die out, he doesn't believe that it will happen as fast as many people believe.

In addition to Schulman, free lance reporter, Kate Daly too believes that the print paper will die out because all of the signs are there. Before speaking to her, she handed me yesterday's San Jose Mercury and asked me what was wrong with it. Immediately I noticed how thin the paper was in comparison to how thick it use to be. And, just this simple action was another sign that the traditional print paper will be gone.

For me, not having a traditional print paper can be good but I also believe that it can have a negative affect on our society. First, since many people today have some sort of device whether it be a smart phone, laptop or tablet they have an instant way to access news and no longer need to rely on the next days paper to see what happened. So therefore in this manner, not having the print paper will not only save companies a lot of money, it helps the news stay current because of the ability to edit online stories and repost them. While on the other hand, not having a traditional print paper can also have negative affects. For example, the by not having a traditional paper, the newspaper companies are limited to the number of advertisements they can have which also generate money. But, the main reason why it would have a negative affect would be, what happens to the people who still like the traditional print paper and don't have access to the online edition.

While, many predict that the traditional print paper will eventually die out, they are reluctant to put forth a set date as there is no way to tell the day and year it will no longer exist. But, as for now we can enjoy the small fragments of print paper we have.