Is There No Balance Between New & Old Media?

In a highly discussed statement, Steve Ballmer claimed that “There will be no media consumption left in ten years that is not delivered over an IP network. There will be no newspapers, no magazines that are delivered in paper form. Everything gets delivered in an electronic form.” This is a bold statement and even as someone that creates mostly digital content, I have to disagree.

I think that many of the traditional news publications will most definitely be dead but to say that consumers do not want any print data is not accurate in my own opinion. At least not currently. I love buying books but if Amazon’s Kindle continues gaining traction, perhaps that won’t be the case. There are still plenty of niche publications that work well as a table centerpiece for instance.

Could you imagine walking into a doctor’s office and all the publications were accessible in digital format? How about having guests over and rather than having magazines or books off to the size you simply have a Kindle? It one way it sounds kind of hip but it doesn’t make a lot of sense, even to someone who is entrenched in digital media. Do you think digital media will completely eliminate printed media?

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.