PressEthic

We have until the year 2043, according to The Economist , when we will reach "the moment when newsprint dies in America as the last exhausted reader tosses aside the last crumpled edition."

Newspapers will be replaced by reports found exclusively on the Internet.

Accompanied by statistics such as the fact that people between the ages of 15 and 24 in the U.K. spend 30% less time reading newspapers once they start using the Internet, the article "Who Killed the Newspaper?" (24 August '06) in The Economist argues that it is only a "matter of time" before newspapers begin to close down in large numbers. Advertising is slipping along with circulation and the rise of "citizen journalism" online has meant the decline of print's importance.

The current publishing scene in the U.S. seems to support this claim. The reliably mammoth media conglomerates are all cutting their staff, trying to consolidate, perhaps in light of the coming online onslaught. Nearly a year ago, Knight Ridder organized 500 buyouts at 9 of its papers across the country. And with the latest squabbles at the L.A. times over budget cuts, it's clear that papers are already feeling the strain.

So goodbye, messy ink; goodbye recycling bins and Roz Chast's idea for an alternative energy source; goodbye impromptu wrapping paper and framable, perishable clippings. Goodbye kidnapper's best proof of life, fly swatter, sponge, birdcage liner, delivery boy's livelihood, and all kinds of potential collage material. Art, artifact, archaic fetish: I, at least, will miss you.