We Want Media

The world's oldest newspaper, first published in 1645, is now available online only. The last print edition of this Swedish newspaper, called the Post och Inrikes Tidningar, or PoIT, was on December 29th, 2006. Now it exists solely in digital form.

Is this going to happen to all newspapers eventually? To be fair, this newspaper had diminished significantly from the time when it was the official organ of the Swedish government. When it went out of circulation, it only had 1,500 subscribers.

It may be possible that going online-only will become a way to keep alive the newspapers or magazines that are losing their readership. Teen People and YM have gone a similar route; the magazines are no longer being published but the websites are still active. I wonder if this is going to be the future of print--if sales on the actual print copies are slowing down, the magazine or newspaper will just move everything online and cease production of the hard copy.