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The future of Grand Rapids media


joeDowntown

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I would imagine that beast is not the most cost efficient building to keep up and running though.

As far as journalism, people read what they want. If you live in a two newspaper town, you read the paper that leans to your political/social beliefs. I think it is the same way with radio and Internet. Is it all journalism? No, but information can be retrieved from many different places today, and we no longer rely on one news source like TV, radio or newspaper. It's a different world and I think we're going through a fundamental change. But somebody *will* figure out how to monetize what's next. There won't be a void left by the exit of newspapers. Something will fill its place.

Joe

The key is journalism not newsprint. Journalism costs money, and newspapers were great big money making machines in the good old days. They aren't anymore. So, how do you pay for the journalism? Is Urban Planet journalism? How about your favorite blogs? NPR, by the way, is cutting as well, and has gutted its Culver City NPR West studio out here.

As far as the Press building goes, my guess is that Newhouse will be shopping it, but given the market, they may want to wait. I am sure that it was paid for decades ago.

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Probably the future of news papers is in products like the Kindle, or other such e-paper devices. Something that can be updated instantaneously without having to deal with a bunch of paper. With cities implementing Wifi technologies and pretty much every commercial building in existance at least having one wifi spot, and most homes having wifi routers, such devices could be what drives the newspaper industry forward. I'd love to subscribe to the GR press and have it on a Kindle. Right now it looks like at least 50 newspapers are doing just that.

The sad thing is Booth invested so much into that printing press near the end of the news paper's life, I wonder if they'll ever get a return on investment for that facility.

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Probably the future of news papers is in products like the Kindle, or other such e-paper devices. Something that can be updated instantaneously without having to deal with a bunch of paper. With cities implementing Wifi technologies and pretty much every commercial building in existance at least having one wifi spot, and most homes having wifi routers, such devices could be what drives the newspaper industry forward. I'd love to subscribe to the GR press and have it on a Kindle. Right now it looks like at least 50 newspapers are doing just that.

The sad thing is Booth invested so much into that printing press near the end of the news paper's life, I wonder if they'll ever get a return on investment for that facility.

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Excellent piece. That is exactly the point. It is the hard work of journalism that costs money -- sending reporters overseas, doing investigative pieces on local crooks (mayor of Detroit, anyone?). How will this work be done by the blogosphere. It won't. But maybe there is another model. I just haven't seen it yet.
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I would agree. Most folks I observe read newspapers the same way I do - that is, in a non-linear fashion. We tend to scan headlines, look at catchy advertisements, and for the most part, bounce around quite a bit in our paper. The Kindle doesn't do so well as a scan, read and bounce device.

Books, on the other hand, lend themselves well to the Kindle - they are to be read in a linear manner, one page after the next. The Kindle is pretty good in that mode. Newspapers - not so much.

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The quotes were not so much in reference to Mike, who certainly has not had it easy, but more in reference to the rash of similar "retirements" of other Booth execs recently.

I certainly wish Mike all the best and I hope he got a monster buyout.

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The quotes were not so much in reference to Mike, who certainly has not had it easy, but more in reference to the rash of similar "retirements" of other Booth execs recently.

I certainly wish Mike all the best and I hope he got a monster buyout.

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