Convenience keeps the print publications alive. Once digital media approaches and matches that convenience print will truly be dead.

Our approach to media has changed. Instead of consuming it for an hour or so to launch each day, we now consume media in micro-breaks throughout the day. For basic news items, those that are simply reporting what has happened but not necessarily telling a story, we can keep updated via our mobile phone.

I now only read newspapers when I don’t have access to my laptop and don’t want to read long-format articles on my phone. Tools such as the Kindle and nook (and soon the iPad and Courier) provide us with a convenient alternative, and while currently price prohibitive to most consumers, in 2 or 3 years these devices will have likely have price points below $100. These devices provide much of the convenience of phones but a much better medium for consuming longer format journalism.

I think the real question isn’t whether newspapers and magazines will survive (I agree with Balmer that in 10 years [i guess 8 years now] they will largely be gone), but what will the economy of journalism look like? The real value of newspaper and magazine publishers was that they aggregated our content and packaged it for us to consume. In the world we are creating for ourselves, technology allows us to package our own content far more efficiently.

We’re both democratizing and capitalizing journalism in a way that will directly reward journalists that provide value. It’s the American way.