Lloyds of Nowhere - Another Newspaper Goes Digital

Magazines and newspapers fold all the time. I should know, I've edited a few that went under! The economy changes. The competition is ruthless. Certain topics just aren't that appealing anymore.

If the Internet was going strong when my last magazine bit the dust, around the time Christian Science Monitor stopped its print edition, mine might've limped along via a digital edition...probably becoming little more than a glorified blog...something I could use to get interviews and freebies...while having to have a REAL day job!

It's no surprise THIS newspaper is going digital...

It's just sad that this one happens to have such a long, long tradition.

How many employees will be laid off? How many newspapers-going-digital will it take before newsstands go under? How about the people who make paper and ink? How about the delivery boys? How about the lost postage on subscription sales? Hello domino...watch those dominoes fall. Does a newspaper going digital help anyone but Google? You think THIS newspaper is going to get healthier via banner ads? That they'll actually employ more people?

They'll employ one or two nasty 20-somethings to webmaster the site, and that's it...while dozens of others in the office take their pink slips and go sit around watching Cameron speeches and laugh, laugh at the hilarious Boris Johnson on YouTube.

The sad fact is that a lot of much more relevant newspapers and magazines are teetering on the brink, and "going digital" is no great fix. Not when The Great Google lets people pirate all that digital content so easily.

There are plenty of websites that simply re-write, every day, articles from digital newspapers and magazines. Or not re-write at all, just boldly take it all. Google's bloggers often set up "readers digest" type blogs where they grab entire entries and post them with some kind of "fair use" remark...and are happy to take nickels and dimes in Google "monetization" for their "hard work" in picking out entries to steal.

Newspapers and magazines that go digital generally go into the dumper soon after...or exist in a state of limbo, or have one or two overworked staffers living a life of purgatory. But what the hell...free downloads are the opiate of the masses, and they are numb to the suffering of people in industries they are envious of. Like: what? You're up on stage getting all that attention? I'll record your show, put it on YouTube and get MY share of compliments! What? You've got an album out? I'll copy it and distribute it to a dozen forums like Robin Hood and they'll praise ME for stealing, not YOU for creating. What? You make a living doing something you love to do while I'm bored and retired, or working as an office drone? Call me Blogfather! Call me Deja Vu MOD. Call me Kim Dotcom! Now I'm more powerful than YOU!