How long do you think it will be until the newspaper is made fully redundant?

I still get the paper. Much of the info is redundant but the paper itself is useful. I use it to start fires in my stove, on the counter collect bacon grease splatters, clean windows, wrap glassware, and carry it with me when I get on the couch to read and take a nap.
It will be a long time before my Apple iNews XL5 or PC with Windows 20 can do those things.

That said, sadly, I give newspapers 5–10 more years. Then I’ll have to buy blank paper, darn it.

Even if the entire information world becomes fully digital, technology will never completely eliminate the need or desire for paper and other tangible resources. Humans like to touch and manipulate their environment. So, newspapers and paper books will never become extinct. Besides, if there was ever a long-term power (electricity, etc.) or info technology (satellites, etc.) crisis, humans would need the technology to create, utilize, and distribute information manually. This need ensures the long-term sustainability of paper media.

Maybe the papers will add a small audio/video part to themselves… like they are dong with magazines and advertising(sorry I can’t find a link but it was in the news 6 months ago)... or maybe newspaper’s will be delivered totally by E-mail or in a CD format…(like I think some already is)

Having started my career at a large newspaper, I mourn its decline. (My late dad, who owned a professional camera store, would feel the same about the demise of film.) But I mostly stopped reading the newspaper years ago. I get most of my news from the Web and TV, and my news commentary from magazines and on TV. Time and change, if not always progress, march on and on.

Newspapers might change delivery systems (from paper to online or er-eader), but I don’t think they will ever entirely go away.

Erm… IMHO, that happened a couple of years back.

For quite some time now I have gotten the news from a news ticker application that scrolls the headlines from multiple sources across the bottom of my screen. My wife, OTOH, reads the paper. It is very rare that she sees an article that she mentions that I have not already read on-line. Add to that the proliferation of e-readers and the need for print news papers has become questionable.

I do, of course, get my utility out of the local paper we still subscribe to. I often need packing material or a disposable surface to work on for craft projects… ;)

Subscriptions to newspapers, the physical product produced by numerous individuals, may be on the decline; but the newsroom, photographers, editorial department and advertising departments will continue to exist. The pressroom, mailroom, route circulation department et al may die out eventually. But newspapers are already adapting to the computer age with online subscriptions and advertising.

I’m more concerned with journalism and the decline in standards and the rise in blogs. I’m concerned with the financial pressures put on traditional news wires like the Associated Press and how news organizations get their news and how they define news in general.

@Austinlad I’m not that old and I have personally witnessed the end of the lineotype machines, composing rooms, large format cameras, four-color stripping, burning plates, X-acto knives, wax machines…and openly smoking and drinking in the newsroom at your desk. Oh for the good old days of 25 years ago.

@YoBob Where do you think your online news tickers get their information? From newspapers.

@marinelife Not exactly true. It’s more of a case of the newspaper getting its stories from the same sources that as the news ticker, namely the Associated Press and Reuters, etc… The primary difference is that the articles are often published electronically several hours prior to the time the paper version is printed and delivered to your door.

I’ll have to ask my parakeet. I put a Kindle in the bottom of his cage, but he wasn’t impressed with it.

That’s not total snark. The experience of reading a newspaper does have something to do with its physical characteristics. I find it a lot easier to browse through the want ads in a real newspaper than I do on a web site. I can leaf through the business section while my wife reads the news pages and my kid looks at the comics. Really no way to replace those experiences.

There was a teaser on the radio this morning about tablets taking over the paper newspaper and saving the newspaper business. I don’t know what their case was, but it does seem plausible.

I still get the paper paper (not the e-paper). My son wants a tablet in the worst way. Maybe he’ll get it (so we can read the news, lol).

@YoBob What do you think the AP is? It is a new service paid for by newspapers.

@marinelife Of course. The point is that most of the news printed in the local town crier does not come from reporters on their staff, and other distribution channels such as those available on-line or through e-reader applications make the traditional newsprint somewhat obsolete.

@YoBob actually the local newspapers carry local news reported by local news reporters, features reporters and sports reporters. Some local newspapers are small enough that the editors are also reporters. Many local newspapers are weekly or twice weekly papers. That is how you get the news from local school boards, country board of supervisors meetings, water/sewer authorities, car wrecks, police blotters, etc.

The tragedy with the local newspapers is that they are owned by larger parent companies. In many, many cases the smaller hometown papers’ physical offices and printing presses have been closed and they only have one or two bureau reporters who act as reporter/photographer and they transmit copy to a larger newspaper owned by the same company in a nearby city or larger town. The larger newspapers print the local newspapers in many cases.

as long a fish and chips exist we still need newspapers

On a serious note, although we can access news in many different mediums in today’s modern world I still think some people need to feel the paper in their hands, like when reading a book, not sure I could read of a screen i pad style!

@sakura In general I agree about the whole electronic screen reading experience. I spend my whole day behind a computer screen and the last thing I want to do is spend any leisure reading time I have looking at yet another computer screen. However, I recently got a Kindle and have found the epaper display to be surprisingly book like. It is quite a different experience from a traditional back lit screen.

I’ve seen an increase in small local newspapers which are free and supported by advertising. The large world news paid subscription will probably disappear. Mine is already charging extra for the TV list, and I’ve seen hints that the comics will only go to people who pay extra, so that’s when I’ll throw in the towel.

@YARNLADY back in the day, it was unheard of to have advertising on the front page or the editorial page of a newspaper. That is a now a thing of the past. I remember when obits and wedding announcements were free in most newspapers. That community service is long gone.