The Future of the Newspaper, the Newspaper of the Future

Of all the old media formats that lay dying in the shadow of the internet, the daily newspaper is the greatest and most unfortunate of losses. The newspaper was an indispensable tool in the rise of post-Enlightenment democracy, publicizing the ideas behind the American and French revolutions.

Since that time, the newspaper has played a central role in every war, election and public event in the industrialized world. For the latest in-depth news and rough summary of public consensus, the newspaper was the well-informed person's key source. Even in the age of television, nothing beat a newspaper for its scope and detail.

Obviously, those times have come to an end. The internet is where news is distributed now. The newspaper, as it exists today is a relic, printed only for the sake of tradition, and the pleasure of those diehards who cannot break the habit of yesterday's technology.

But as the newspaper fades away, we lose its single-most important benefit. The unique advantage of a newspaper is its portability. The Kindle and the iPod represent breakthroughs in the portability of electronic media, but they are far from acheiving the portability of the printed page. No device can ever be as lightweight, disposable and as easily manipulable as paper. It seems hard to argue that any electronic device will ever fully overlap the ease and convenience of the book or printed sheet.

Meanwhile, "Short Run Digital Printing" is a technology that has been in development for several years now, and it promises to bridge the gap between the rapid-distribution capabilities of electronic media and the unique conveniences of printed media.

There is an unexploited opportunity here. With some clever software design and marketing it is conceivable that someone out there could make a lot of money devising a system for delivering a highly-personalized news product that could be printed from street kiosks or even in the home.

Whether they prefer comic strips, sports scores, financial information, obituaries, grocery advertisements, local crime news, election information, or any of the other hundreds of things that the daily paper used to deliver, the common news consumer loves to have a real crinkling piece of paper to hold and read on the bus to work, over the morning coffee or with the evening cocktail. The internet has revolutionized the flow of information, but humans will always have a place in their hearts for news that they can fold. Hopefully, those with the resources will soon realize the basic truth of this fact and make a reality out of something that has long been needed and is entirely possible at this very moment.

-z