An old San Francisco TV news report from 1981 began playing the “Death March” for print newspapers. It’s amazing how aspects of the report are true — and how the print journalists missed the mark.

Note what David Cole says:

This is an experiment. We’re trying to figure out what it is going to mean to us as editors and reporters and what it means to the home user. And we’re not in it to make money. We’re probably not going to lose a lot, but we’re not going to make much either.

I’m not one to think the Internets is going to destroy newspapers — most news organizations were (and are) extremely slow to embrace new technology and new tools. Whatever the medium, the need for good reporting skills remains the same.

Like the housing bubble, we’re seeing the news bubble burst — the big, inflated, over-valued operations will be overtaken by the small, quick and nimble (and I would dare say young).

Here’s the clip, via Evan Coyle Maloney: