In the words of Mark Twain...

"The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated."

A lot of discussion going on right now about the future of the newspaper and traditional media. Are they in their last, dying gasps?

Excellent post from Powerline on the general decline of newspaper circulation.

Charlie Sykes also talked about this on his radio show yesterday on WTMJ.

Since many newspapers have been inflating their circulation numbers, (Journal Sentinel included), it is difficult to tell how much decline is attributable to the correct circulation and how much is attributable to people becoming fed-up with their bias, or turning to other outlets for news and information.

Most of the callers on Charlie's program mentioned the internet as a key contributor to the decline in newspaper readership. They cited the following reasons that they use the internet as a primary source (as opposed to the paper):

-The internet is more visual and interactive (and therefore appealing to younger customers)
-The internet is more timely (get news as it is happening)
-The internet allows links to the source material and other related stories
-The internet allows you to be selective (if all you want to read is the sports, why buy the whole paper?)
-The internet is 'free' -- or relatively so, after you've purchased a computer and pay for broadband/ISP access

It will be interesting to see how newspapers evolve in response to this threat. But I believe it is too early to sound the death knell. Remember, years ago when people were predicting that movies on demand and online entertainment would mean the demise of books? Remember predictions that movie theaters would disappear due to the rise of Blockbuster and NetFlix?

The Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel ran Jonah Goldberg, from National Review, today. In his column, "Bloggers are latest media darlings", he contends that newspapers are not 'down for the count' and predicts that the Internet will be absorbed by traditional media. He cites examples of how the blogosphere is beginning to consolidate:

Big media outlets are starting blogs and buying up the best bloggers. Independent bloggers are joining forces to achieve economies of scale for advertising and editorial direction.

Just this week, some of the best bloggers created a small consortium called Pajamas Media. It's not inconceivable that consolidation will continue to the point where bloggers become new online newspapers.

I can't find an online version right now...will add one if it becomes available.

I think the bottom line is this: Choice is good. Competition raises the bar. The gauntlet has been thrown to the newspaper industry. It will be interesting to see how they respond to the challenge.