End of the offline?

Abstract

The Guardian's new media editor writes: My original brief for this piece was to explore the question: "Is the writing on the wall for online newspapers?" I wondered for a minute whether I had misheard and the actual question was: "Is the writing on the wall for printed newspapers?" Scroll back ten years to the Telegraph launch [of its website] and it is obvious that in achieving massive audiences and, so far, modest revenues we have travelled a far different path from the one those present on that distant occasion expected. In the next ten years the path will be steeper and the need to ascend it more urgent. But if newspapers wish to keep both their businesses and their voices, then engaging with the online world is a non-negotiable imperative