Michael Eisenberg

The Death of Snail Mail and Sunday Papers

Jeff - This is so right. No sure how I never extrapolated the newspaper to the postal service. Yet another gaping budget hole on the way.

Newspapers: Give Us More Creativity Please

Dead on. Generally, people who ran last generations media cannot conceive of the business any other way and hence will not lead the innovation. seekingalpha.com/artic...

'The Market and the Internet Don't Care if You Make Money'

This is completely wrong. the reason newspapers were sold out on the day after obama won was not because people wanted to read the news, but they wanted to frame the news. You see, it was a collectors item, a fossil, a relic. Not news.


On Nov 10 12:42 PM TJIrish wrote:

> I won't argue your business model points. BUT what about Obama's
> election. Newspapers were sold out worldwide. My point is not that
> the author is wrong and newspaper CEO's do need to change. I bristle
> with the suggestion that Print is dead or will be dead. When that
> comment is made what is the meaning "Print will die." Does it mean
> newspapers will die or PRINT will die? There will always be PRINT!
> The day after Obama's election proves their is still an interest
> in Print. Now I know people did not run out to read the articles
> but rather bought the papers as a collector's item. Which is my point.
> Printing is more than newspapers. There is commercial printing, printing
> magazines, printing labels on wine bottles etc... Not everyone has
> a blackberry and not everyone wants to sit in doctor's office waiting
> room looking at a blackberry. Me? I rather read a magazine or a newspaper
> when I am sitting on the toilet taking a dump then looking at a high
> tech berry or holding a lap top. As for GOOGLE... Agree about their
> business model. But I know the CEO of Google takes no pleasure in
> seeing what has happened to the newspaper business. It's very expensive
> to do the expansive in depth reporting about an important issue.
> Newspapers and their websites such as the washington Post are still
> best equipped. When I read a major story I look to the Wall Street
> Journal, Wash Post, Slate or some other major media center online
> rather than a blog site.

What Magazines Don’t Understand About the Web

SCOTT - this is another terriffic post. you are the smartest guy on analog to digital media out there. I think it would be useful for you to try to wrap some financials around this as well. and i think a post about how television will run into the same digital freight train would be a good sequel to the sequel.

Why Print Journalism Will Never Really Die

Even local print newspapers will whither. They may not die. They may print only weekend editions but craigslist is a far better way to find local services than newspapers. Nobody will pay for the newspapers in the future since the void you talk about will be filled by free dailies that will be much thinner. I think there is a world for journalists because someone needs to chase down scoops, I just believe they will be more conversational like bloggers are today. Stories will be much shorter and the medium will be online or on the phone. Don't look at what you and I do, look at my kids! I also encourage you to read Warren Buffet's most recent letter to his shareholders.

I include below 2 quotes you may find interesting in this context.

"As one not-too-bright publisher famously said, 'I owe my fortune to two great American institutions: monopoly and nepotism.' No paper in a one-paper city, however bad the product or however inept the management, could avoid gushing profits."

"Average daily newspaper circulation in the United States has declined each year since 1987. "

"Simply put, if cable and satellite broadcasting, as well as the Internet, had come along first, newspapers as we know them probably would never have existed."