The Future of Newspapers

Thought this would be a timely discussion following last Tuesday’s final print edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer after 146 years of ink and newsprint existence.  The PI and The Rocky Mountain News are now entirely digital, despite being the largest circulating papers in their respective regions.  Library users who are regular readers of the PI will not be completely without Seattle news in print as we have picked up a subscription to the Seattle Weekly.   With recent cutbacks at the Juneau Empire leading to a much slimmer daily print edition, many news outlets have begun exploring the possibility of a world without paper.  Check out a great discussion on Democracy Now, “The Death and Life of Great American Newspapers”.   Robert McChesney takes a look at The Newspaper Revitalization Act, currently being debated in congress which suggests a new business model for American newspapers, one resembling the non-profit organization of public radio and television which would allow the essential media form of printed daily news to survive today’s economic climate.

If you’re familiar with digital editions of newspapers and enjoy online content, you should know about the Internet Public Library’s Newspaper Collection. The Internet Public Library is an index of high quality web content, regularly reviewed and organized by Library and Information Science graduate students at The University of Michigan, Drexel University and Florida State University.   The Newspaper collection features links to online English editions of papers from all 50 States and 80 countries worldwide.

Are you looking for a newspaper article that can’t be found using the online editions of a paper?  Try Newspaper Source,  a subscription database available to Juneau Public Library patrons.

Newspaper Source provides selected full text for 25 national (U.S.) and international newspapers, including USA Today, The Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Post, The Times (London), The Toronto Star, etc. The database also contains selected full text for more than 200 regional (U.S.) newspapers, including The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, The Detroit Free Press, The Miami Herald, The New York Daily News, The San Jose Mercury News, etc. In addition, full text television & radio news transcripts are provided from CBS News, FOX News, NPR, etc.

If you’re into Historical newspaper perspectives, check out the Alaska State Historical Library’s brainchild, Alaska Newspaper Project.  Spanning 1886-1998, this finding guide will aide researchers in navigating the wealth of history preserved on microfilm.

Where do you see printed newspapers in 10 years?  How about printed books?  There’s much pressure in the market and industry for electronic resources, e-books, e-journals, etc, which do you prefer to take to read in bed with you at night, your computer, e-book reader or a paperback?  Let’s hear from you.