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What's killing the news business: A belief in corporations. (scripting.com)
18 points by glower 5878 days ago
2 comments

It lost me at "Microsoft, Apple, Oracle, IBM, DEC, Compaq, HP, Lotus, Sun, Netscape, Google, Twitter. Over the years they come and go, and they never solve problems."

I can think of quite a few problems that Google solved. Same for HP, Lotus, Sun, Apple, Oracle, IBM, DEC, and Netscape.

Take the example of Apple -- it revived itself from near-death after the original Mac desktop platform proved unprofitable.

Take the example of IBM -- kids these days might not remember it, but IBM used to make hardware. Now it makes practically none, but still has a massive and useful business.

Take Google -- it didn't always dominate advertising.

Etc.

I think Twitter is probably the only company on that list that hasn't undergone at least one fundamental transformation, and that's simply a matter of time.

I usually like Dave Winer's posts. They are sometimes outlandish, but there is usually some beef behind his point. This is a joke. Turning Newsweek into a bunch of blogs would be brand suicide.

Corporations rise and fall because that's the natural order of things. It's not because they have nothing to contribute: after all, startups do it too! Every single corporation he lists provided some valuable contribution to the marketplace, and some of them are continuing to innovate.