Yesterday we began a chat about the rapid decline of the newspapers as an information source in our “instant” culture.  For many of them, circulation numbers have been spiraling and a large part of that is due to entrenched policies that didn’t keep up with the evolving electronic presence in the household.

I will offer just one example of this wrong-way thinking:  During the course of the week, I log on to a lot of newspaper websites.  And you would be surprised at how many of them feed up a page that says something like, “Help us serve you better.  Please register to read our news pages.  It only takes a few minutes, and it’s free!”  Then they have this 20-question form to fill out before you can read their website.  Now just how arrogant is that?

When you go into the 7-Eleven or stop at a street box to buy a newspaper, do they require you to fill out a form before you can buy one?  Of course not.  And I’m not going to do it online, either.  The news business is as competitive as any other, if not more so.  And here you have these dunderheads effectively prohibiting people from looking at their product (and advertisements).  It has been my observation that most of the papers doing this are smaller, mid-market newspapers with circulation numbers in the low 5-digits.

Some of the more progressive newspapers are teaming up with local television stations (usually they are owned by the same company) and posting video reports directly on the newspaper’s website.  So now we are getting a blending of news delivery systems.  Newspapers and TV stations are both serving up print stories and video reports, and putting them all on websites.  They are recognizing that the trend is rushing toward people using the internet to learn what’s going on as well as a place to get any background information.

In the past, you would sit down with your newspaper and pick up the section that covered the topic you wanted to read, such as Sports or the Metro news, and you’d flip through the pages, stopping to read whatever stories interested you.

Today you sit down in front of the computer and flip through websites, stopping to read whatever stories interest you.  But the “sections” are much different now.  You have a very wide choice of topics and in your case you pick up the Fire & Rescue section and start flipping through the websites that are devoted to that narrow topic.  That is a new choice now, and one that the newspapers will never be able to offer.

For the first time ever, you can “pick up” a section that carries subject matter never-before served up and get instant information, even the occasional link to a live-streaming video of a major fire in progress.  Of the dozens of F & R related websites, you probably have 8 or 10 stored in your Favorites folder so that you can find them easily and check up on what’s happening whenever you wish.

Yes, currently most of the websites link to newspaper or television news stories (that will change in the near future, too),  but there is no way that you can find the time to “flip” through a thousand websites to find the stories that relate to your interests.  That is where sites like Firegeezer fill a role.  We’ve already gathered information related to whatever niche you want to read about and if you “flip” through a handful of Fire & Rescue websites, then you’ve learned more in one hour than you used to be able to find in a month’s time.

The information revolution is happening fast.  Tomorrow I will tell you what I think the future will bring us as it relates to the information delivery modes.

But for today, let’s get the equipment checked out now.  I will run us some fresh coffee and later on we’ll have time to give Mom a call and wish her a Happy Mother’s Day.

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