I have started to blame Ted Turner for the demise of the print news industry. Here's why:
A few months ago, I was watching a special on the Oprah Winfrey Network where Ted Turner was discussing his life, which of course included the creation of Cable Network News, better known as CNN.
As I was watching this special and listening to Turner talk about the innovation that was CNN, it occurred to me that it was his creation that led to the increase in Internet news and ultimately a decline in print newspapers. It seemed to me that the Internet was the result of people's need to satisfy their need for news, which started with the 24-hour news cycle.
Let me explain.
When Turner created CNN in 1980, he provided people with news ALL THE TIME. This is huge. In the past, news was available only at certain times. You would watch the nightly news at certain times. You received the paper at a certain time. You listened to radio reports at available times. If you wanted to know what was going on in the world outside of those times, that couldn't be done. You had to wait for the news.
But when Turner started CNN, people could get news whenever they wanted. They were able to hear more news than ever. They no longer had to wait to get information. Sure, the local news outlets were still viable, but CNN opened up Pandora's box per say because now people had tasted the sweet fruit of news availability, and they no longer wanted to wait on the news.
Of course, having the news available all the time on TV wasn't enough. People wanted more. They didn't want to have to sit and wait to hear the information that pertained to them. They wanted to get it quickly.
Thus the news cycle moved to the Internet.
I say that CNN was the chicken before the Internet egg, in that people were able to get more news than ever before because you have to kill 24 hours of news somehow. But people wanted the ability to interact with it, tell it to their friends, and find out even more information, which was a need that could not be met by the television. It seems only right that the news expanded to the Internet because it was able to meet the social needs of viewers, as well allow them to research more information about a story.
Therefore. it's not the creation of the Internet that has led to the decline in the print news industry. This wasn't just something that happened over night. Newspaper folks didn't just wake up and say, "Oh hey, let's stop printing papers and just put stuff online." No, the readers demanded it because Ted Turner made them realize they needed it.
Conclusion: The decline of the print industry is Ted Turner's fault. Yup, I blame him.
NOTE: These are my thoughts. Don't steal them and publish them in your own paper.
