Yesterday’s debut of an online-only Seattle Post-Intelligencer has been widely panned as a journalistic rearranging of the deck chairs and cited as yet another nail in the coffin of dead-tree news publication.
Piffle. I say cue that “I’m not dead yet” guy from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” … and here’s the reason for my defiance:
Last week we had a few chuckles here at the expense of Google’s new “Tip Jar,” an experiment that’s designed to leverage “the wisdom of crowds” to save us money in our everyday lives. As is often the case, a version of that blog post also appeared in the weekly print edition of Network World.
Good thing, too, as evidenced by this response from a reader who left only the name Joul:
This was very funny. It was the first time I’ve ever laughed while reading a magazine in the bathroom.
No higher praise may a pundit expect.
Oh, sure, it’s possible he could have been reading on his iPhone instead of the paper-based magazine. Nevertheless, for this particular — and, I might add, essential — application of reading whilst seated on the throne, print remains practically irreplaceable for most people.
Just Google “reading in the bathroom.”
Or browse Amazon’s selection of “bathroom reading.”
Magazines and newspapers will always play a vital role in supplying the bathroom stall’s second most mission-critical supply of paper.
Therefore, here is my vow to you, dear readers: As long as there are those of you out there — like Joul — who have yet to experience your first laugh in the crapper, I stand ready, willing and (for the moment) able to get ink on my hands.
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