2012?

So I'm reading my class readings like a good little boy, namely the paper by our esteemed Professor Louis(!) Cowan and this is the first passage that jumps out at me...

"When Arthur Sulzberger told the audience in Davos that he would not mourn the death of the New York Times print editions, he was offering an optimistic statement about the future of the Times as a profitable and authoritative source of news in a digital world. He is determined to make the Times the nation’s paper, the indispensable source of news for concerned citizens wherever they live." (Page 5)

It's just a breath of sweet fresh air for me to read an optimistic point of view of how the internet will change newspapers because we seem to always be talking about how the internet is going to destroy newspapers.

But then this passage came along...

"In five years or 2012, we expect 68% of revenue to come from core, 20% from online and 12% from niche. In operating cash flow, our goal in 2012 is 40% from core, 50% from online and 10% from niche. That would be a great business, one that investors would applaud.”" (Page 7)

Yeah, 2012. The next year that everyone is going to freak out about because it's another possible time that the world will end, according to the Mayan Calendar (or something like that).

Well sh**. So much for optimism in journalism in the digital age.