The commitment to newspapering in the Digital Age

Throughout history, the dawning of every new technological era has wrought a chaos of sorts in the established economic order. Fresh entrepreneurs emerged and some went broke, but many prospered wildly; old traditions either adapted, withered or in many cases even died.

This was true with the introduction of the telephone, the motor engine, television, almost every breakthrough in technology. Nobody gets telegrams any more. There aren't too many blacksmith shops. The film studios have changed dramatically from Hollywood's Golden Age.

This era is no different in that respect. In the economic arena, the Digital Age offers both huge opportunities and intimidating challenges.

What is different is that this revolution is combined, at least in the West, with an era of significant cultural change, a shift in the traditional family model. More marriages end in divorce. Many couples cohabit outside of marriage. Even something as seemingly innocuous as the family dinner has disappeared in most homes.

This too has economic implications. Carryout restaurants prosper, grocery stores suffer.

Also different is the pace of change. Never in history have the advances come one after another in such a feverish clip. The smart phone you bought with the two-year contract will be outmoded before the contract expires.

It should be no wonder then that throughout the country, newspapers, magazines and book publishers, among others, are under assault. The Digital Age has siphoned off revenue for all three. The family tradition of reading is hard to pass on when there is no traditional family. And the relaxation implicit in newspapers is squeezed out of lifestyles built around breakneck multi-tasking.

We reflect on this as we recommit today to the legacy of company patriarch Stuart Paddock Jr. on the ninth anniversary of his death.

How much the newspaper industry has changed since Stu's passing. Circulations are down, but readership — when combining print with the Web and mobile — is up dramatically. Meanwhile, newspaper companies everywhere search for new business models that make sense.

Many newspapers, for example, have begun charging — or plan to — for access to their online editions. At the Dallas Morning News, publisher Jim Moroney told his staff that considering the cost of its journalism, “asking consumers to pay a fair price for it doesn't really seem like such an odd notion; continuing to give it away for free (online) seems to me a more peculiar idea.”

How all that will play out is anyone's guess, a fascinating story in itself.

As for us, we're energized and we're retooling.

Recently, we've reinvented our sports coverage to make it more relevant. This weekend, we're introducing a new Saturday Homes section. In the coming weeks, we'll be launching a new Neighbor section on Saturdays and a new Business section on Mondays. And we've got a number of other improvements in mind after that to strengthen our coverage of the suburbs.

It's a different world. Change is inevitable. We're here to stay.