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Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

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You, ma'am!

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You want to read all about advancements in printing technology, don't you?

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And how they've affected the newspaper industry?

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Well, I've got a story for you... hot off the presses...

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One hundred years ago, when people got a hankering to acquire information...

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...they bought a newspaper. Plain and simple. There were no other options.

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Of course, back in 1620, it was the town crier who was totally cutting edge.

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That was before this amazing thing called "pulp" came along.

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Cheap paper and ink...bam! You've got yourself a newspaper.

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Until recently, "advancements in technology"

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meant improvements to the printing press...

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...which would result in lower production costs...

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...which, in turn, would make newspapers more accessible to the poorer classes.

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For those who could even read, anyway. There was no camping out overnight for the

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next best thing like we do with our techie treasures.

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There were just the usual places to buy the same old publications.

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And it wasn't only newspapers that were printed and sold this way.

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Books... pamphlets... everything was printed in bulk and distributed across the country

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to spread information as quickly as possible.

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Can you imagine having to wait an entire day to find out what Perez Hilton had to say about

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Katy Perry's birthday party?

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==We shudder to think. Stuff started to change with the advent of

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broadcasting via radio... and then television.

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Of course... if people weren't after cute little soundbites, they knew a newspaper was

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still the place to go. The newspaper industry took a hit, but they

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were still going pretty strong.

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After all, the TV news was presented only a few times a day...

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...so you still couldn't just "log on" and access the desired information any time

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you felt like it. But then came the knockout blow.

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The internet. El internet-o. The Great White Web.

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This thing meant business.

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There was no longer a significant cost to printing and physically delivering papers...

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...Now, the marginal cost for computer space was close to nothing.

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The way newspapers had always made money was to sell ads for jobs, cars, homes...

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... but who relies on newspaper ads these days to find what they want?

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Can you imagine a world where people go to the "Man seeking woman" section of the

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newspaper looking for a date?

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Used to happen, believe it or not. Once the internet got on its feet...

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...it began to feature news feeds, informational blogs, online versions of physical publications...

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... and eventually, instantaneous news and information via social networking and reporting.

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Because of this sudden explosion in readily-available information...

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...if a company didn't jump on the virtual bandwagon, there was a chance they were going

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to end up six feet under.

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And you just know their obituary would have been instantly available online.

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The traditional newpaper companies were doomed because they were averse to taking risks.

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Instead of recognizing the trend and cannibalizing themselves to reinvent their business...

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...they let others do it for them.

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The newspapers could have bought Yahoo, AOL, Google, and others...

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but they were pennywise and pound-foolish.

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They instead bought what they were comfortable with.

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Each other...

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and consolidated.

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By the time they had to compete with the Internet,

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they had all become local monopolies with cultures as just order takers,

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rather than competitors.

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The best and brightest didn't exactly beg for jobs at newspapers.

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Today, not only can we follow American news...

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...but we can be updated on global events just as quickly and easily

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as the story that happened down the street.

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Although, to be fair, even today most of that news comes from the papers.

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AP and UPI, for example, are owned by the collective of newspapers,

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and get paid a license fee for the feed...

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...except that now they compete against bloggers who do it for one-hundredth of the price,

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so... buh-bye, profits... The immediacy of the internet is great though,

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because it used to take forever to find out what was going on overseas.

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Today, newspapers and other print media seem like dinosaurs.

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Especially Dinosaurs Weekly, which has really been hurting as of late.

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With hundreds of newspapers already out of business...

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...and many more headed in that direction...

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...it won't be long before the newspaper is a relic of world history.

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Or, even if it is still around, it certainly won't be growing. It will just sort of be...there.

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Hanging on for dear life. People still get their news.

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In fact, more people get more news.

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They just get what they want when they want it. How they want it.

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Anyway, you might want to hang onto one or two of those newspapers as collector's items.

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Someday, you'll have a good story to tell your grandson when he asks, "What is that thing?"

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