Edward J. Delaney asked this question in a summertime blog post last year–one I’m only catching up to now. He compares vinyl–once discarded as useless by audiophiles–to newspapers. The implication is that perhaps newspapers will have a similar renaissance once most of the big boys have folded.
A better comparison would be to compare newspaper companies to their major label counterparts in the music industry. Both are clueless about the power of the Internet, both are in trouble, both have limited futures unless they can change with the times. The majors have made more inroads on this front than the newspapers. Imagine a major label with a head executive in charge of decision making where bands are concerned saying they aren’t literate about the net!
That very thing happened last summer when a Chicago Tribune editor admitted on television that he didn’t understand the Internet. Why that guy wasn’t fired immediately, I will never know.
Check out Is The Newspaper The New Vinyl Album for additional discussion. Me personally, I think vinyl is here to stay, but newspapers aren’t.
