Willes, however, said he trusts his staff to respect traditional boundaries. And whether or not it dies depends more on what we do than on what people put on the Internet. Mass newspapers like the ones we print are basically consumer products. A lot of people in the newsroom don t like to think about it that way, but that s what it is. It s for consumers.
Advertisers are trying to get more consumers, the readers are consumers.
The reason that s important is that one of the things that tends to be true about consumers is that they don t change established trends rapidly. If you reinforce the habit that they have in a positive way, they will stay with you for a very long time. So many people have grown up with the habit of reading the newspaper some people like to read it on the couch, some people like to read it in bed, some people like to read it in the bathroom or the office. But the fact is they re in a habit and a pattern. That pattern has associated with it not only the information that they get when they read it, but the pleasure and the enjoyment they have in the process of reading.