Blogs — and My Dusty Bathrobe

A year ago I asked my class of 25 graduate students at George Washington University’s School of Political Management how many of them read a hard copy of a newspaper nearly every day. Mind you, these are serious politicos, they work on the Hill, in lobbying firms, as political consultants.

Last Spring, 5 of the 25 read a hard copy of a newspaper (and those 5 also went to the web). The other 20 went exclusively to the web and read the papers online, but rarely read a “real” newspaper. Yesterday, I asked the same question; only 3 students out of 25 read a hard copy of a paper.

Now, I am still addicted to going out to the front steps, bleary eyed, in my bathrobe, to retrieve my Washington Post and New York Times every morning. I can’t imagine starting my day any other way. But the real news is rapidly shifting from newspapers and network news to computers and Ipods. Those of us dinosaurs who insist on drafting speeches on yellow pads, actually hand writing letters and using, heaven forbid, stamps, are being overtaken by a revolution of informational choice.

The implications for all of us of this rapid transformation are just being felt — in advertising, in the immediacy of news, in the explosion of content, in blogs like this that allow for a free exchange of views. The “New Media” is leaving many of us in the dust, in our bathrobes!

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