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Maybe newspapers do have a chance.

No American, for the first 30 years of television, paid anything for their rabbit ears. Now they pay $60, $70 a month for better content.
--David Simon, creator of "The Wire," via nytimes.com

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Good point. Plus, isn't Rupert Murdoch planning to charge for online newspapers.
— Ola
That's definitely an interesting data point. In general Americans don't pay for quality and don't spend money when they don't need to.

However, the major difference here is America is a lazy country. People like to sit around and watch TV. A lot.

On the flip side, fewer and fewer people actually read. Steve Jobs even said about the kindle:

"It doesn't matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don't read anymore... The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don't read anymore."

So while some people still read, the intersection of people who read and people who spend money on content is so small that it can't keep traditional publications in business.

— Sachin Agarwal
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