A report on the Internet, from 1981.
The enthusiasm with which newspapers sought to get their product online was quite progressive.
And suicidal, as it turned out.
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5 Responses to HCW: Newspapers Online? Surely You Jest…
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The most humorous part is the description of Mr. Halloran as someone who “owns a home computer.” How times have changed. Computers may eventually put most of us out of business, not just the newspapers. Given the dysfunctionality of our political system and our society’s preference for ostrich-like behavior in the face of looming problems, I doubt the transition will be anything less than miserable and traumatic.
It makes me sad to realize that he’s probably dead by now.
By the way, this wasn’t actually the Internet, was it? More like a BBS?
Looks like a network of BBSes, but yeah.
Don’t blame it on the newspapers. There was really no choice but to try. Markets can be brutal.
There was nothing they could have done, in the end. I just find it kind of funny that, at the start, they were actually kind of excited about it.