Thursday, December 24, 2009

How a new communications technology disrupted America’s newspaper industry—in 1845

"CHANGE is in the air. A new communications technology threatens a dramatic upheaval in America’s newspaper industry, overturning the status quo and disrupting the business model that has served the industry for years. This “great revolution”, warns one editor, will mean that some publications “must submit to destiny, and go out of existence.” With many American papers declaring bankruptcy in the past few months, their readers and advertisers lured away by cheaper alternatives on the internet, this doom-laden prediction sounds familiar. But it was in fact made in May 1845, when the revolutionary technology of the day was not the internet—but the electric telegraph."

in reference to:

"How a new communications technology disrupted America’s newspaper industry—in 1845"
- Newspapers and technology: Network effects | The Economist (view on Google Sidewiki)

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