The smart ones are surviving.

Question: Can old media survive the digital revolution?

David Pogue: That’s a tricky question. They are surviving it. The smart ones are, as you know, going online. And recently InfoWorld, I believe it was, completely dropped their print edition and they’ve moved online and they’re actually more profitable than they ever were. The New York Times is certainly hedging its bets, much more online, much more digital.

Newspapers is the one that I would specifically worry about. I don’t think the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal will ever go away, but I think some of the little guys probably will. They’ll have to move online or disappear entirely.

Question: What will the New York Times look like in five years?

David Pogue:  Well, the paper size actually shrank. The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times both went down by an inch in each direction. Five years from now, it’ll be like oh, the Sunday Times, whoosh, you know? So nobody can predict the future of technology, but if you extrapolate from the trends, more online stuff, less reliance on the printed edition.

Recorded on: May 15, 2008.