I've never met Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., but I feel every print journalist somehow wears the comment the New York Times publisher made last year in Israel at a conference. He said he wasn't sure if the print edition of the Times would exist in five years and that, really, he didn't care.
Well, of course, he cared, but he was making a point --- even if that point has been used since as evidence the top dog at the top place was predicting the end of the word.
Which is what he's done again this week at a conference in California. When asked if his ink-on-paper edition will exist in 10 years, he is quoted as saying: "The heart of the answer must be (that) we can't care,"
OK, so apart from this care thing, what I'm taking from him is what he then said --- that the Times, and everyone else, ought to be ready to meet the audience wherever it wants.
The CNET account indicates Sulzberger believes strong brands will rebound in the digital era as the trusted sources. But it might help more of us if he'd not leave things open to interpretation, which is where his new remarks are headed.
