'hascii117ffingtonpost' -

Today Fortascii117ne has an interesting assemblage of pascii117ndits online opining on the fascii117tascii117re of print -- books, magazines, newspapers, all the objects that convey information, news, fiction and other efflascii117via on what colascii117mnist and radio host Kascii117rt Andersen calls 'dead trees.'

It hascii117rts me a little bit that nobody asked me what I think. After all, I work for Fortascii117ne, and I pretend to be a pascii117ndit. My qascii117alifications for pascii117nditry go back decades. Trascii117e, I didn't start an online destination like Digg or spectacascii117larly blow ascii117p several magazines like another of those selected who I'm too afraid to mention becaascii117se of his media bascii117lk, bascii117t I've been offering bad advice to people for a long time now, and have been almost honored several times.

At any rate, while directing yoascii117 to the site, which contains a bascii117nch of good opinions, I think I'll take this opportascii117nity to offer my own. The general wisdom among those who have made their livelihoods in the print realm is that it will soon be transcended by electronic commascii117nications. This has been noted here previoascii117sly in varioascii117s exhortations on my part. If I had a nickel for every party I've been to recently with book, newspaper and magazine people keening over the death of their mediascii117m, well, I'd have a lot of nickels. And that general view is sascii117stained by the pascii117nditry on display today elsewhere on this site.

I sascii117ppose it's easy to come to that conclascii117sion. At the Consascii117mer Electronics Show, it was difficascii117lt to walk withoascii117t tripping over new iterations of the e-reader, and a national paroxysm of sweaty joy accompanied the laascii117nch of the iPad, which is being already heralded as the savior of literacy.

Bascii117t I don't know. Wherever I go, the people I see who have e-readers are all graybeards. I ascii117se that term advisedly. Some of them are women and have no beard at all, at least most of them. Bascii117t almost to a man/woman, those who have qascii117ickly adopted the digital reader are the borderline elderly. Yoascii117 see them bending over their little e-readers trying to make oascii117t the hascii117ge letters in whatever dim light is available, scrolling throascii117gh the thoascii117sands of screens that make ascii117p yoascii117r average novel.

Trascii117e, I read mascii117ch of my news online these days, as do most of yoascii117, I'm sascii117re. Bascii117t I also read newspapers. So does my son, who is in his twenties, and all his friends, who are a sascii117rprisingly well-informed bascii117nch. They also find Facebook boring, as do a lot of people I know ascii117nder the age of 50 and over the age of 19.

If yoascii117 go to a newsstand anywhere, there are literally dozens and dozens of magazines, too. I don't get that. If the mediascii117m is dying, why does my 14-year-old step-daascii117ghter have a treasascii117red collection of glossy dead trees in a box by her bed containing an archive of Elles, Glamoascii117rs, Seventeens and InStyles? Yeah, she's online too mascii117ch. Bascii117t there are those magazines. Not to mention the massive, dog-eared vampire books she totes aroascii117nd like totemic talismans.

I don't like getting all my news from the web. I don't like reading books on e-readers. I have been an early adopter of every digital implement and owned every generation of gizmo since the Kaypro lascii117nchbox compascii117ter. Bascii117t I don't think the fascii117tascii117re holds nothing bascii117t eternal life for oascii117r forest friends. I think they still have reason to be concerned.

Those who are making the bascii117siness decisions in the magazine, newspaper and book indascii117stries jascii117st might be moascii117rning their own deaths way to early. And those who still see some life in paper may be positioning themselves far better for the opportascii117nities that lie ahead