Silicon Valley VCs proposed a plan to save newspapers in 1996

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People were looking for ideas back in 1993

I was working at the Apple Media Research Lab in Boulder in 1993.
Steve Outing, also based in Boulder, started the Online News mailing
list in 1994. Anyone who was involved with digital news, whether at a
newspaper or in academia, was on that list. (Many of the same people
are the ones discussing the death of print now.)

People were aware that digital news presentation would change the
world. We anticipated it. Everyone was talking about how to mesh the
needs of the papers, the readers, and the advertisers. Papers were
trying everything, even then: Making news available for free. Charging
for online subscriptions. Charging for access to archives. Charging for
special sections. Offering city guides and charging for advertising or
listings. Adding special online content to stories. And so on.

There were lots of interesting experiments. Most cost more than the
revenue they brought in, so they weren't sustainable even then.

What really accelerated the decline of print was Craigslist, which took
away classifieds. The problem wasn't that newspapers were unwilling
to change. I'm not sure what VC money could have done to prevent the
loss of income for papers.

Posted by: Suzanne Lainson   Posted on: 07/01/09 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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