Tuesday, February 24, 2009

New York Times "Skimmer" and Marc Andreessen


Apparently in an effort to make its content more "web friendly" the New York Times has launched its news "Skimmer" which displays content by category. Just tap the space bar to move between interests and click an article to read. It seems to work quite well, but I am still not so sure of the future of newspapers, in general.

I caught Marc Andreessen on Charlie Rose the other night - a truly brilliant man - and he thinks the game is over. Among many things, he said regarding print newspapers:
You’ve got a problem. But you have to build for the future. I mean if you’re — if you’re the guy delivering ice to people’s ice boxes, at a certain point, you better go into the refrigerator repair business or you’re going to have an issue. If you’re the village blacksmith and a model T comes along, you better become a mechanic. People’s lives are better when they get news online versus having to wait for the morning paper. It’s a lot more efficient, a lot more real time, a lot less waste. It’s actually — like everything about the online experience is better. And at some point, you have to — I believe, as a responsible manager, reorient –

Full transcript and video here. Embeded video below:

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