Newspapers RIP at the New Yorker…again

The prospect of print news dying is starting to become something of an obsession over at the New Yorker.  This week, writer Jill Lepore tells the story of an earlier threat to newspapers, the Stamp Act.

Lepore argues that the Stamp Act made costs too high for most printers, forcing them to close shop, much as business pressures today are shuttering papers.

But, I think that’s where any similarity to today ends. 

Three centuries ago, government and other establishment interests had a vested interest in quashing the papers, which traded in opinion, sensationalism, and a smattering of news.  Colonists valued – and needed – this unique early independent media.

Today, the opposite is true. Newspapers are part of the establishment, often owned by huge multinationals and media outlets.  Government officials and policy influencers who use newspapers to test their opinions and make their images are among the few with a vested interest in the papers surviving.

Consumers, meanwhile, have turned to the Internet, an even more independent resource where they find…opinion, sensationalism, and a smattering of news.  And, unlike the print newspaper of any era, it’s all free.

But, there is a lesson in the model.  With just a few companies controlling the Internet’s “pipes,” publishers eager to form alliances with Internet providers, and officials at all levels pondering Internet taxes, we could be facing a 21st century “Stamp Act” of a cyber kind.

This time, though, the interests of today’s Ben Franklins and Peter Zengers would appear to lie with the Crown. 

So much for the Revolution.