he American newspaper has been around for about three
hundred years. In 1721, the printer James Franklin, Benjamin’s older brother,
started the New England Courant, and that was what we might recognize today as a
real newspaper. He filled his paper with stories of adventure, articles on art,
on famous people, and on all sorts of political subjects. Three
centuries after the appearance of Franklin’s Courant, few believe that
newspapers in their present printed form will remain alive for long. Newspaper
compiles are losing advertisers (广告商), readers, market value, and in some
cases, their sense of purpose at a speed that would not have been imaginable
just several years ago. The chief editor (主编) of the Times said recently, "At
places where they gather, editors ask one another, ’How are you’, as if they
have just come out of the hospital or a lost law came." An article about the
newspaper appeared on the website of the Guardian, under the headline "NOT DEAD
YET." Perhaps not, but the rise of the Internet which has made
the daily newspaper look slow and out of step with the world, has brought about
a real sense of death. Some American newspapers have lost 42% of their market
value in the past three years. The New York Times Company has seen its stock
(股票) drop by 54% since the end of 2004, with much of the loss coming in the past
year. A manager at Deutsche Bank suggested that stock-holders sell off their
Times stock. The Washington Post Company has prevented the trouble only by
changing part of its business to education, its testing and test-preparation
service now brings in at least half the company’s income. How does the author seem to feel about the future of newspapers