Does anyone have a link to the actual blog entry? I'd be curious to read Marc A's actual analysis of the newspaper business, rather than have it reported second-hand by a journalist. It doesn't seem to be up at blog.pmarca.com yet, though.
That said, I think the idea of immediately killing the dead-tree version of the NYT is flat-out laughable. Obviously the media business is moving online, and it's crazy for the NYT not to have some more clued-in people on their board, but killing off the paper version of the NYT is a sure-fire way to eliminate one of the NYT's most valuable assets (its priceless brand and ability to influence some of the world's most important decision makers). Sure, many of those people will turn to the website, but they could do that now if they wanted to -- there's a reason they are still paying for the paper version. Plenty of those important decision-makers are old-fashioned folks that actual want something they can hold, and read on the subway, on the airplane, or at the gym. Online media is making progress toward making dead tree editions redundant, but that hasn't happened yet.
But since I haven't read Marc A's actual analysis, it's hard to tell if he's serious or not.
That said, I think the idea of immediately killing the dead-tree version of the NYT is flat-out laughable. Obviously the media business is moving online, and it's crazy for the NYT not to have some more clued-in people on their board, but killing off the paper version of the NYT is a sure-fire way to eliminate one of the NYT's most valuable assets (its priceless brand and ability to influence some of the world's most important decision makers). Sure, many of those people will turn to the website, but they could do that now if they wanted to -- there's a reason they are still paying for the paper version. Plenty of those important decision-makers are old-fashioned folks that actual want something they can hold, and read on the subway, on the airplane, or at the gym. Online media is making progress toward making dead tree editions redundant, but that hasn't happened yet.
But since I haven't read Marc A's actual analysis, it's hard to tell if he's serious or not.