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Christian Science Monitor Or Canary In A Coal Mine

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by Kevin Maney
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Oct 29 2008 8:49am EDT

Christian Science Monitor or Canary in a Coal Mine?

Kevin Maney writes: In a recent interview, I asked Silicon Valley entrepreneur and thought leader Marc Andreessen about his "New York Times deathwatch," which he'd started earlier this year on his blog. Part of the exchange:


If you were running the New York Times, what would you do?

Shut off the print edition right now. You've got to play offense. You've got to do what Intel did in '85 when it was getting killed by the Japanese in memory chips, which was its dominant business. And it famously killed the business--shut it off and focused on its much smaller business, microprocessors, because that was going to be the market of the future. And the minute Intel got out of playing defense and into playing offense, its future was secure. The newspaper companies have to do exactly the same thing.

The idea sounded like it was probably right, but no major newspaper would have the guts to do it. But that logic was turned on its head yesterday by The Christian Science Monitor. After 100 years in print, the national newspaper announced it will become a Web-only publication, shutting down the print edition in April.

The Monitor describes its thinking here, and it makes a lot of sense for the publication. It's a national newspaper delivered by mail to its remaining 52,000 subscribers. It has a robust Web site. And the Monitor isn't totally giving up on print: It will publish a small weekly edition and e-mail out a subscription-based PDF version daily, which the Monitor expects readers will print out.

All of that has put the publication in position to experiment. It already seemed to be in the forefront of ideas for how newspapers can survive in the current climate. It might even be creating what Phil Meyer describes as the "elite newspaper of the future." No doubt the Monitor's move will be closely watched by the whole industry.

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