Death of Print: Even in Really Small Towns?

CEO and editor of Gear Live Andru Edwards talks about the Death of Print.

With more than 500,000 downloads per month, it appears that the inevitable we have talked about for months -- the web replacing print trade publications and newspapers -- is becoming a closer reality.

And, we have all witnessed that it is already reality with the techies and early adopters. What's interesting is the behavior in small town America. I had to head east (read the recent 6 degrees post, or something to that effect, in other words, it was frickin' cold) for my father's last days and funeral.

As a solo logistical manager of 'it all,' there was too much to do within the 24 hours following his death, so I didn't get the 'word out' to the community, town, friends and family fast enough. Where were they all looking? You got it! The local paper.

Within 24 hours, I started receiving numerous calls saying, "we didn't see it in the paper," as if to say, "why didn't we see it in the paper?" And of course, they're right - why didn't they see it in the paper? What was I thinking? That Web 2.0 lives here? And so I got busy on day two and wrote the obituary, which I sent in via email and followed up with a phone call to confirm.

A late night reporter picked up the phone and when I asked about the timing of the obit, he grabbed my text and said "yup, got it." Then I asked - "will they just bill me?" He replied with a "well, why don't you give me your credit card number? I'm not really sure, I write sports but I can give it to someone in the morning."

While this is a small town (30,000'ish people), the main source of news remains word-of-mouth and the local paper. My niece's generation (she's 14) knows and participates in MySpace but not Facebook or LinkedIn and a handful were aware of YouTube. But, even her generation is being raised to learn that the newspaper is the main source for 'local saga.' At least in this small town America.

Sure, all of this will change of course, but I found it interesting (yet not surprising) how much change there is in Silicon Valley in ten months and how little change there is in an upstate New York small town in ten years.