Horse Drawn Wagons and Newspapers

A paper commissioned by the Columbia University Journalism School basically says the government should step in to save the newspapers across the county. One of the nations largest newspapers, The New York Times, recently announced it is laying off additional workers as its market share contracts adding fuel to the fire that the print media needs saving. My questions; Why?

In 1900 when the automobile industry was beginning to grow I wonder if there was talk of saving the horse drawn wagon industry? After all the horse drawn wagon industry was an important part of the transportation industry and had been for many years. The horse drawn wagon manufacturers in 1900 and the Newspaper producers today are in the same position. They are in an industry that is in transition.

In 1900 the transportation industry did not go away. It evolved into motorized transport. Some of those companies that saw the change coming evolved. Consider Studebaker. Studebaker had been around since the Civil War building wagons for the US Military and at the turn of the 20th Century they realized they were not in the business of making wagons, but in the business of providing transportation products. The survived for nearly another 70 year by switching to building cars and trucks. They successfully made the transition from horse and buggy to automobiles to survive much longer than their contemporaries.

The newspaper industry is the modern horse drawn wagon industry. It does not need a bailout from the government, in fact no industry does. The first thing the newspaper industry needs to do it realize they are not in the newspaper business, they are in the news information business. Perhaps the New York Times and the Washington Post may not survive, but that is OK because somebody will take their place.

While Studebaker made the transition at the turn of the 20th Century, we also saw the rise of the replacement transportation companies like Dodge, Ford and Chevrolet. As we transition into the 21st Century we are already seeing the replacement for the newspapers in publications like The Drudge Report, Breitbart and Bloomberg.

The newspapers do not need a bailout, they need to die a natural death. In a few years a newspaper will be about as useful to a modern world as a horse drawn wagon built in a government subsidized factory.