Monday, May 08, 2006

Newspapers down, Web up

It appears circulation of newspapers has been steadily declining over the past few years. At the same time web-readership of those papers has increased. No real surprise given an increase presence of news on the web including that of newspapers themselves. With web-readership replacing for the most part regular readership, it's a clear example of products replacing one another to fullfill an overall demand. Based on this article readership as a whole isn't down as much as circulation is. Rather folks are finding their news from different sources. Will hard copy newspapers become extinct in the next 20-30 years? Maybe. But just like the "paperless society" which was once coming, my hunch is there are enough people who need to hold the paper rather than just stare at a computer screen. That being said, there is phenomenon happening how Americans get their news. There is now an excludable, non-rival good of newspapers (excludable, rival good) and it a can all be found right at your fingertips.

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