The End of Civilisation, continued

Links: Commentary - Are Newspapers Doomed?.

Who needs yesterday's papers, sang the Stones. Who needs today's papers, asks one Joseph Epstein of the USofA : "About our newspapers as they now stand, little more can be said in their favor than that they do not require batteries to operate, you can swat flies with them, and they can still be used to wrap fish."

Whence this unspeakable loss in status ? It's the blogosphere, stupid. News is going on-demand : people- especially the young - will not wade through oceans of print by so-called objective journalists when the information that is relevant to them - election results in Bolivia, for most people, will not qualify in this category  -  is just a few clicks away.  Are newspapers doomed,  then  ? Yes, they are, and if go down they must, then why not go down in a dignified way, asks Epstein- "proud to be print !" - instead of dumbing down and whoring to the young - to no avail  ? Untergang des abendlandes, olé . Is it as bad here in Belgium? Whoever recognizes himself in this quote please raise his hand : "I almost never read the editorials, following the advice of the journalist Jack Germond who once compared the writing of a newspaper editorial to wetting oneself in a dark-blue serge suit: “It gives you a nice warm feeling, but nobody notices.”