Thursday, February 24, 2011

Patchwork America: The Changing Face of American Newspapers


As we all know, the once near domination of the dissemination of printed news by a handful of daily newspapers is nearing an end.

We read sadly that circulation is falling annually for printed editions at The New York Times,USA Today, The Daily News and The Los Angeles Times, etc. This is because the American consumer is getting more of his news from free online sources transmitted to him via his computer or mobile device.

We read sadly about the concommitant layoff of thousands of writers, editors and other pressroom employees.

We are now seeing a proliferation of online newspapers such as the Huffington Post and News Corporations new national daily aptly called The Daily.

The Patch is a startup national venture funded by AOL. Their goal right now is to establish 100 online dailies in selected communities across the country, each with its own editor and staff of a few writers. For instance in lower Fairfield County and adjacent Westchester there is a patch for Stamford and others for Greenwich, Darien and Norwalk.

My impression is that America is turning into a patchwork of online dailies with the traditional print papers offering a free online version in competition with all these start ups.

Who knows what the future of print will be under all this online medial proliferation.

Where will you get your news from?


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