A casualty of the digital era, I guess.. due to declining subscription numbers, the Christian Science Monitor will be going to a weekly schedule, although it will keep its website up to date daily.

Monitor shifts from print to Web-based strategy (http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1029/p25s01-usgn.html)

Will we see other bastions of print go the way of the dodo?

A casualty of the digital era, I guess.. due to declining subscription numbers, the Christian Science Monitor will be going to a weekly schedule, although it will keep its website up to date daily.

Monitor shifts from print to Web-based strategy (http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1029/p25s01-usgn.html)

Will we see other bastions of print go the way of the dodo?

It seems like pretty much every magazine is available online for free.

I still like having magazines around though. I stare at a computer most of the day anyway, it's nice to sit around and read off paper, the old fashion way.

I'm with molson. I like to read a magazine that I can hold in my hand. I hate trying to read a magazine that was once print that is now online. I don't know why, but, I'm just not as engaged when it's online.

I don't like reading off a computer screen, either. One article is fine, but sitting and reading nonstop off an LCD screen bothers my eyes after a little while (although LCD is much better than the days of CRT).

Having said that, I used to be a big magazine reader. At one point, I think I had subscriptions to 8-10 magazines. I'm down to 1, ESPN The Magazine, which I don't even want but they keep sending me despite not having paid for it for over a year.

You people spend too much time in the bathroom.

I'm with molson. I like to read a magazine that I can hold in my hand. I hate trying to read a magazine that was once print that is now online. I don't know why, but, I'm just not as engaged when it's online.

For me its purely flippability - you can flick through a magazine and browse quickly much more easily than on a computer imho.

The demise of print media is just one of those things that seems to be rife with contradiction. So many of us want to whine about it (even those among us who are actively using web-media to communicate) but at the same time, the revenues and subscriber bases can't be lying. Were it not for the obligatory local business of obituaries and police blotters and used car ads, I think a ton of local papers would have folded by now, and we'd be crying the whole way through it even as we cancel our paid subscriptions. Odd stuff.

I didn't have a newspaper for several years, because the local one is too in the pocket of special interests. The sports section is overrun with UNC grads who rail on Duke / NCSU and don't really care about pro sports and love to interject opinions into everything; it's like a bad sports talk radio station. And their publisher is on the board of one of the local pro-school board groups, so getting anything objective or negative published about the school system will never happen. And they'll suddenly start blasting a politician that they've let slide for a long time for no apparent reason.

We re-upped the subscription for coupons (which has the paper paying for itself), some of the Sunday store flyers to see if anyone is running a great deal, and an occasional read of the comics. Most of them still end up in the recycle bin unread.

Newspapers were used to being the only game in town, and now that they have to actually COMPETE, many are finding it difficult to mend their ways...

For me its purely flippability - you can flick through a magazine and browse quickly much more easily than on a computer imho.

Yes, that too! And you don't have to worry about some dumb pop up that you have to click on to continue reading.

I can't wait until ereaders are more affordable and a little more user friendly (touch screen perhaps?)

My local paper has been on strike the last 2 weeks, so this dicussion is kind of timely for me. They've been publishing to their website, but I almost never go to it. And when I do go to it, I read about 3 articles and leave.

Contrast that to when it shows up at my door. It sits there on my table and throughout the day or evening I will walk by and flip through, reading what catches my eye. I might read some while I cook or eat a meal. I might take a section to the can. I might read while I'm waiting for something else. Sometimes I end up reading lots of articles I wouldn't expect myself too because they are on a page I'm already reading and I just sort of drift over.

I guess what I'm saying is I get way more out of the print version. I also think the ads are more effective too. I ignore all web ads out of habit, yet I enjoy flipping through certain ads that show up in the paper each week (Best Buy, Future Shop, etc).

I can't wait until ereaders are more affordable and a little more user friendly (touch screen perhaps?)

The Sony Reader 700 is going to have a touch screen. Not that it helps with affordability for most people ($400).

I was thinking about this today, and I can see sometime within the next ten years (probably much closer to the 10 year mark than earlier) having eReaders with adjustable screen sizes (small for books, large for magazines/newspaprers/books with pictures/graphs/etc. that need a large screen) and color eInk technology.

The Sony Reader 700 is going to have a touch screen. Not that it helps with affordability for most people ($400).

I was thinking about this today, and I can see sometime within the next ten years (probably much closer to the 10 year mark than earlier) having eReaders with adjustable screen sizes (small for books, large for magazines/newspaprers/books with pictures/graphs/etc. that need a large screen) and color eInk technology.

But if someone is considering the Kindle ($359), that is worth keeping an eye on. The lack of annotation on the Sony seems to make the Kindle surpass it in functionality, but the form factor for the Sony is so much nicer.

Newspapers were used to being the only game in town, and now that they have to actually COMPETE, many are finding it difficult to mend their ways...

But they are pretty much the only game in town when it comes to news, especially locally and regionally (print combined with their websites)

I read the other day that 90% of newspaper revenue still comes from print, which is dying out. How do local newspapers survive the next 10 years?