WHAT'S NEXT: INNOVATIONS IN NEWSPAPERS

Watch yesterday’s joint interview of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.

Bill Gates presents Surface, a new computer device that looks interesting, but for what?

Bill Gates, the founder of Miscrosoft, speaks about the future of reading (again):

“Reading is going to go completely online.

We believe that as we get the smaller form factor, the screen has gotten good enough.

Why is reading online better?

It’s up to date, you can navigate, you can follow links.

The ads in the online reading are completely targeted as opposed to just being run-of-print, where many of the readers will find them completely irrelevant.”

And about printed newspapers he said:

“The media itself will be quite, quite different.

Who can create this media, who can distribute it?

How do you find what you’re interested in?

I have a lot of friends in the newspaper industry, and of course, this is a tough, wrenching change for them, because the number of people who actually buy, subscribe to the newspaper and read it has started an inexorable decline.

In fact, when we look at it by age group, it’s quite dramatic how different that is.

People have found some combination of TV and the Internet as the way that they can get their news, even the local news that historically was only available in that print form.”