In the years to come when the pie gets smaller, the two extremities between newsprint and new media will become more acute.

I dont think newsprint will ever disappear completely, it will be like radio, there will always be a demand.

The problem, I believe is growth and sustaining advertising revenue.

There is an excellent article abt this whole area written by the leader of the Brotherhood, Darkness. I believe it was once posted on the site, "what others say." I have checked and it has since closed down under mysterious circumstances, but if you can ferret out the article, it contains some gem analysis in this area.

If you like, you may wish to write to them directly to ask for an article and a reading list. I hope this helps with your research.

Thanks for writing this article.

Many of the ppl blogging these days are serious professionals. Lets not talk abt the Mr Brown type blogs most of them are saying roughly the same thing and the probably form 90% of the marketing mix.

As for the other 10%, they are regularly producing insightful and interesting reads, bc many of them are leveraging on their knowledge, this is where, I feel journalist are at a disadvantage – they cannot deliver the detail and breadth. They may purvey but that is all they can do.

In the long run, they will lose out bc why should anyone get it from a postman when, they can get it fresh from the oven?

Terence probably represents the 20s age group and I see that they do spend more time with the computer and internet.

As for my age group, the 40s, we read The Straits Times. And I will continue for the next 40 years as long as it has good quality contents.

However, the 20s group might abandon The Straits Times and get their news entirely from the internet or alternative media.

What SPH Can DO…

Continue the online subscription model and give away the printed newspaper for free! You know what I mean.

What the MSM did not (or cannot) go in-depth into the issues, bloggers will dissect them further to reveal what the MSM did not write and tell the public the truth of everything.

Come on, we all know that most of the MSM is about "nation building". And more people are not buying into it readily as our older generation would have.

These bloggers are on the ground, experiencing what they are writing. They do not need 20 minutes. MSM may gross over the things, bloggers will tear those things apart. The more MSM does "nation building", the more people will seek out online media for more "realistic reporting" and critical opinions.

Indeed. But imagine the power a bunch of bloggers have if they group together to do news reporting.

And isn't that what journalism.sg is doing now?

May I first say, this is a very interesting article. As much as, I would like to buy into the idea MSM can actually make money in the internet. I have my reservations as the culture and even methodology of wealth creation differs considerably.

I dont have any statistics to verify what I have just said, but I do know for a fact, there are a few fringe groups who are successfully doing brisk business in the internet.

For example, I know for a fact, the leader of the brotherhood, Dr Darkness does a brisk trade in love novels which he retails in exchange for monopoly money that is not strictly considered legal tender. It's processed in a virtual bank, in a planet that doesn't really exist. Invested in commodities that dont exist. But I am sure somewhere along the value chain, it's transformed into hard currency or it's equivalent, but they have not been able to catch him all these years.

The reason why I am giving you this example is because the folks who are really savy in how to capitalize and even commoditize material in the net, may not want others to muscle in, so they keep a very low profile.

That of course leads any intelligent person to consider whether it is a good idea to rope these fellows in, if one is serious to capitalize on opportunities in this brave new world. MSM doing all alone with their Stat board hard hats will definitely be a real challenge.

Thanks