World’s Oldest Newspaper Goes Digital
Monday February 5, 2007 7:01 PM
By KARL RITTER Associated Press WriterSTOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) – For centuries, readers thumbed through the crackling pages of Sweden’s Post-och Inrikes Tidningar newspaper. No longer.
The world’s oldest paper still in circulation has dropped its paper edition and now exists only in cyberspace.
The newspaper, founded in 1645 by Sweden’s Queen Kristina, became a Web-only publication on Jan. 1. It’s a fate, many ink-stained writers and readers fear, that may await many of the world’s most venerable journals.
While the article features an editor who views this as a "cultural disaster", I would contend that the Internet could be seen as the savior of the newspaper, without which it would simply vanish. It remains to be seen whether other famous, "revered" newspapers and news organizations will make the cut in the new medium, as another feature is the fact that the playing field is more level and accessible to many more people than ever before. A citizen journalist with a laptop has just as much a shot at success in the New Media as the New York Times (i.e. Matt Drudge, Skip Murphy). One man’s "cultural disaster" might just be another’s golden opportunity. Read the whole story here.
(H/T Drudge)