How the newspaper industry tried to invent the Web but failed.

Slate by Jack Shafer | Jan. 6, 2009 (News Analysis)

It would be easy to accuse editors and publishers of being clueless about the coming Internet disruption and to insist that the industry's proper reward for decades of haughty attitude, bad planning, and incompetence is bankruptcy.

But newspapers have really, really tried to wrap their hands around the future and preserve their franchise... Full Story »

Posted by Kaizar Campwala

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by Benedicte Florin - Jan. 6, 2009

Interesting history of printed newspapers' response and adaptation to other media, in particular to the Web, well documented with links to several good sources. Yet the conclusion that "the newspapers failed to invent the Web" doesn't proceed from a sound analysis with clear criteria for success or failure, at least not in this article. The book by Boczkowski on which this article is partly based is likely to contain a sounder analysis and be much fairer.