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A 21st Century Guide to Putting Digital Media and Political News in Perspective

As a former newspaper executive turned Internet entrepreneur, I always chuckle when I get emailed a humorous list called “The Easy Guide to Keeping Newspapers and Political News in Perspective”.
Three times in the past week I was sent this guide (which was developed many years ago and is “reprinted” in italics below). Perhaps my friends are increasingly nostalgic about newspapers. Or, maybe I am the only person that my friends know who was ever involved in the newspaper business.
It is an unfortunate reality that newspapers have suffered a consistent decline in circulation for decades. In 1910, over 2,200 newspapers existed in the United States compared to fewer than 1500 newspapers today. Moreover, in the six month period ending September 30, 2010, daily newspaper circulation fell 5 percent compared to the same period a year ago, and this was after an almost 9 percent drop in the previous six month period.
Meanwhile, digital media continues to grow exponentially both in terms of traffic and advertising. According to one study, traffic on the Internet is doubling every two years. The news site huffingtonpost.com, for example, has grown from 8.6 million monthly unique visitors to 14.6 million monthly unique visitors in the past twelve months, according to one report. Last year, for the first time ever, more money was spent on Internet advertising than on newspaper ads.
The Internet is not only changing the way we interact but also reshaping the world as we know it. In the 1970s, the Washington Post’s reporting led to the downfall of President Nixon. In recent months, Facebook accelerated the downfall of governments in the Middle East and Twitter helped to ignite the demonstrations in the last Iranian election.
As digital media starts to consume traditional media, the list below (developed by an unknown author) becomes nostalgic:
“The Easy Guide to Keeping Newspapers and Political News in Perspective”
1. The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.
2. The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the country.
3. The New York Times is read by people who think they should run the country, and who are very good at crossword puzzles.
4. USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but don’t really understand The New York Times. They do, however, like their statistics shown in pie charts.
5. The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn’t mind running the country, if they could find the time — and if they didn’t have to leave Southern California to do it.
6.

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