In other media, the Internet only serves to accompany, at least for now, the printed version. Catalog shopping, for instance, has benefitted greatly from the Internet. LL Bean, Land's End, etc, still want to send out catalogs to entice shoppers, but with the Internet they need to print and mail many fewer, and the catalogs steer shoppers to their Website, where their whole inventory can be accessed. The most vulnerable are the news media, particularly daily newspapers. Some weekly newspapers are only classifieds.
Classifieds are enormously profitable, and for the most part are better served on the Internet.
E-publishing will expand the information flow. Vermont's largest daily newspaper, the Burlington Free Press, just bought The Buyer's Digest, a free classified weekly. The Brattleboro Reformer, the daily in southeastern Vermont, last year bought the weekly Town Crier, a competitor for classifieds. The Free Press and Buyer's Digest will remain competitors in print, but it's a good bet that when the Free Press upgrades its Website later this year, it will combine the classifieds in both publications. It sounds like a good business idea.