Re: [Leica] Re: Leica's Development and Management

[dmorton@journalist.co.uk (David Morton)]

Oddmund wrote:
 
> What about newspapers? They are getting superficial as well, but they
> still have a place in our lives. On-line services are not flexible
> enough. You can't bring them in your pocket anywhere, you can't go to a
> bar with them, you can't read the internet on-line nonsense lying at
> the beach, or floating in the Dead Sea, or sitting on an island in the
> sun with a glass of rhum, or relaxing after making love. You can't
> light your stove with them.

I agree about the usefulness of newspapers as fire lighters, wouldn't be
without them for that.

But you *can* use on-line resources just about anywhere these days: my PDA
talks to my GSM 'phone without cables, I can browse the web from the back
of a taxi. But of course you don't get much in the way of text for the UKP
0.45 you'd pay for a decent broadsheet newspaper, as that will only buy
you 3-4 minutes of connection time via a mobile phone.

You can see where newspapers are headed from the direction of the quality
Sundays. They can't compete with TV (or the internet) for speed of
delivery, so they must concentrate on in depth analysis and explanation.
Those are things which TV isn't good at - it *ought* to be good at it, but
the push for ratings works against anyone who wants to do other than work
to the lowest common denominator.

David Morton                       |  "Times are bad. Children no
dmorton@journalist.co.uk           |  longer obey their parents and
David.Morton@openconsulting.co.uk  |  everyone is writing a book."
(+44) 171 917 6272                 |  Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC)