by Algy Moncrieff

Created on: December 21, 2006   Last Updated: April 19, 2007

The Internet is not a threat to newspapers. There is a lot of information on the Internet, but it is used more as an encyclopedia than a newspaper. You turn on the computer to find particular facts, possibly even to get the day's news, but there is something that is distinctly off-putting about sitting around for long periods of time reading news off a screen.

Quite recently a British newspaper had a bright idea - it would start an online version that they would make people pay like for a newspaper to sign in and get their news. They could even print it themselves if they wanted! Obviously they haven't heard of BBC News - a fantastic free news site.

Newspaper sales stayed high. Hardly anyone subscribed to the online service.

Why? I guess it is mainly due to the fact that paying quite a lot of money for something that is not tangible and so cannot be picked up at the same time as a coffee from a cheery street vendor does not seem a particularly good idea. If you have your laptop with you you may as well get news from a free site. But you don't want your news from the Internet - you want something...ha...to have and to hold. Until you've read it and then you bin it.

So, a threat to newspapers? No I think not. Newspapers are the cure to too much Internet, so they aren't threatened.

Much. Yet.

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