Since I’ve been a kid, television, computers, and the converging technology between them has been something that’s been a part of my life. So, naturally, the concept of the dying physical newsprint is nothing new to me. However, my parents and their generation are alarmed at how quick the paper outlet of news continues to vanish.
Major newspapers, like The Wall Street Journal, are online subscribed now as opposed to the antiquated folds of news-scented thin paper. More and more every year, companies, organizations, and other news corps are switching to digital access of the information. Is this bad? For most of the world, yes. However, as technology continues to improve, we could see the dawning of a new era of the newspaper.
With the advent of touchscreen tablet devices, newspapers have seen sort of a rebirth. More and more though, people are looking for ways to access news not by name, but by the type of news. Social networking has made pop-culture news almost more important than watchdog reporting and world news. This angers me to some extent, seeing as there is much more important things than Snooki’s new baby and the subsequent cancelation of the reality television show she starred in (US Ambassador in Libya, anyone?).
I digress, though. As seen with computers this past decade, tablet computers will be a staple in the world around us very soon. I can see Journals and other organizations putting out a deal or a subscription based service that will allow you to obtain a tablet with the purchase of a subscription to their news. Something along the lines of this marketing will allow them to appeal to the youth who want the device simply for the sake of having the technology. Jobs would be created for people to create applications to directly push their news to you. While these applications exist already on the respective operating systems and devices, the advent of “leasing” (for lack of a better word) these tablets would allow the spread of their name, their reported news, and the “rebirth” of sorts I spoke of earlier.
Perhaps it wouldn’t be wise to push out specifically marketed tablets (nexus, iPads, etc). Some of the bigger organizations could even hire on people to create a specific tablet for those who just want the news (almost like the early eReaders) and nothing else. Who knows what’ll happen in today’s converging society?