Ever since the first Dot-Com-Era, cynical speculators have been forecasting the bleak future of traditional print media.

Back then I scoffed at that idea, the internet was still a novelty, and the diversity of online new sources was lacking (to say the least).

But over the past few years, I find myself increasingly getting my news online, whether it be from the citizen journalism of blogs or the online entity of the local newspaper. And, I know I am not the only one.

This is an excerpt from a New York Times article about the shift from traditional to online news:

The circulation declines of American newspapers continued over the spring and summer, as sales across the industry fell almost 3 percent compared with the year before, according to figures released yesterday.

The drop, reported by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, reflects the growing shift of readers to the Internet, where newspaper readership has climbed, and also a strategy by many major papers to shed unprofitable or marginally profitable print circulation.

Over at TechCrunch they are examining the decline in relation to global region and marketing:

The decline of print media isn’t an international story, it’s one that’s very much focused on the United States, and to a lesser extent the English speaking world. The problem today with print media in the United States is that it has yet to have undergone a massive market restructuring that has occurred in other countries.

And What They Think looks at the shift from traditional to digital media and compares it to the evolution of print services.

It seems to me that the future of print is indeed uncertain, and we should all be prepared to adapt and evolve… or maybe I am just another cynical speculator.