Well this is just fun. Jeff Bezos talked with German newspaper Berliner-Zeitung in 2012 about the dark future of newspapers and how they can be relevant to Amazon. And well, since Bezos is now a newspaper baron, it’s probably a good idea to revisit his rather bleak thoughts on print.
Here’s the meat of it, in which Bezos talks about the not so bright future of printed newspapers, as translated by TechCrunch:
“There is one thing I’m certain about: there won’t be printed newspapers in 20 years. Maybe as luxury items in some hotels that want to offer them as an extravagant service. Printed papers won’t be normal in 20 years.”
I mean, he’s not exactly wrong in his thinking. 20 years is a very, very long time where a lot of advancements in technology can be made and lifestyles can be convinced to be different but talking about the future of newspapers from the perspective of Amazon CEO and proprietor of Kindle is much different from talking about the future of your newspaper as Washington Post owner. Bezos also addressed paywalls for online sites (he wasn’t a fan of them) and how the real future of newspaper subscriptions would be in tablets. [Berliner-Zeitung via TechCrunch, @BuzzFeedAndrew]