Why is it that Juliette Brindak's MissOandFriends.com, Perez Hilton.com, and TechCrunch.com are worth $15 million, $20 million, and $30 million while news organizations like The San Francisco Chronicle and Newsweek are losing both subscribers and reporters to the online world? Because such publications don't get how to integrate their online and print functions.
The San Francisco Chronicle has lost high profile columnists like Ray Ratto in sports and Tim Goodman in television to Comcast SportsNet and The Hollywood Reporter respectively. Both are web enterprises. Newsweek lost Howard Fineman to The Huffington Post two weeks ago. Fineman said he believed he had to get involved in the Internet space and the Huff Po was only willing to offer him both pay and exposure.
Does all of this mean the death of print? No. It's more a problem of management than anything. There's no excuse for not having a well-integrated print and online effort, other than the prejudice of old-line journalists who refuse to come into the 21st Century.
I absolutely love Newsweek & I am a communications major with a concentration in print & web journalism so I definitely am interested in this post. I personally still love newspapers/magazines and holding something in my hands to read more than staring at a screen. I love print though so it breaks my heart even reading the words "death of print."
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