Never mind the cracks forming on the ad-based revenue model, here’s the root problem: a press that doesn’t inform will not survive the information age.
Jon Stewart isn’t very funny when he’s lecturing his fellow entertainers on CNN (then) and CNBC (now) but that doesn’t mean he’s not right. Nor is it exclusively a political matter: access to information is now “baked in” to the way that many parts of our global economy work.
It may be that a majority of Americans reject evolution but they’re almost certainly out-numbered by consumers in Asia and Europe who have no similar prejudice against science.
Every week, the anonymous members of China’s Eco Team risk life and liberty to translate the Economist; a vote of confidence that all but assures that magazine will survive another century.