Gray Lady Down

By Jayson Jarmon, CEO, Lux Worldwide

O, my prophetic soul. A little over a month ago, I made the prediction that the newspaper industry had no choice but to adapt to the digital world, that the Internet would entirely eliminate the print versions of local and national newspapers. Furthermore, I said it was a good thing.

I was greeted with skepticism, one friend telling me that there will always be a market for the print version of papers, and that a flagship paper like The New York Times will always be available in some print form or another. He scoffed at my prognostication.

Yesterday, the chairman and publisher of The New York Times announced that they will move entirely to the Internet within 5 years ... if they can survive long enough to do it. The Gray Lady, so called due to their resistance to adopt color printing until the very last (they didn't want to be too much like USA Today, after all) has relied heavily on tradition and old-fashioned newspaper publishing as its main thrust. But now, after losing $570 million between the Times and the Boston Globe, the Times publishing group has been compelled to take action. And "compelled" is the right word: their banker, Morgan Stanley, is attempting to take over the group to stop the bleeding.

Once again, let me just say, everything that can be digital will be digital. The Internet is re-writing the rules for virtually every information and communication company in the world, and those who don't pay attention to the changes or rely on what they have always done in the past are doomed to the same fate as the Times.

I can already hear the moans and the teeth-gnashing from dozens of friends who subscribe to but do not read The New York Times. Soon they will no longer have the New York Times Book Review to conspicuously carry around. Not to worry, the same content will be available on the net so you will still be able to quote Maureen Dowd as if she really mattered in Seattle, and be able to wow your book club with cribbed reviews of the newest Edith Wharton bio.

The Times they are-a changin'.