Death Watch for the Times?

Marc Andreesen is predicting the death of the New York Times, at least in its print editions. I'm not so sure.

Andreesen is the man who founded Netscape 14 years ago - a company that is about to die officially, having been replaced and outgrown years ago by faster and now bigger competitors. In an interview, and on his blog, he looks at the disastrous financial woes of the Times and its family of publications and institutes a Times Deathwatch "until the last Sulzberger has left the building," a reference to Pinch Sulzberger, the latest (and, some would argue, the least) of the family that has published the Times.

Andreesen argues that the Times should immediately stop the physical production of its newspapers and exist only online, preferably in a social media context. I'm no particular fan of the Times, and I agree with Andreesen and the others who think the company's business model stinks. But, unlike Andreesen, I don't think print newspapers are dead.

I may be on the same shaky ground as someone who predicted a century ago that while automobiles were undoubtedly going to become a major form of transportation, they'd never replace the reliable horse and buggy. But I do think there are - and, more importantly, will continue to be - people who prefer the physical feel of the newspaper, the ability to read it easily on a train or bus (properly folded, of course) or over a breakfast table when they don't want to risk dripping coffee into the keyboard. The Times has to change, of course; there's a good reason why the online version of the paper outdraws the readership of the print edition. But I think it's premature to be setting up a death watch.

It's more than just the newspaper-vs.-online struggle here. The Times still doesn't realize that the whole nature of journalism, the whole flow of information, has changed irrevocably. People no longer regard any one source as THE source of news. That's the struggle that has caught the Times, and only by understanding it and engaging the problem can the Times company survive - whether in print or online.