Last month, the Rocky Mountain News, Colorado’s oldest newspaper, published its last edition. Last December, the Tribune Company, which owns my hometown newspaper, filed for bankruptcy. And even that bastion of journalism, The New York Times, is carrying more than $1-billion in debt and has borrowed millions more to stay afloat by putting up its Manhattan office building as collateral.

Newspapers across the land, large and small, are struggling to survive. The soured economy has no doubt contributed to their hardship. But the core of their problem is that the market has changed beneath their proverbial presses. Retrieving the news from your driveway is archaic when compared with the 24/7 news cycle available on television and the Internet. Why read about yesterday’s news when you can watch it happening live?

 

Didn’t the newspaper industry see this coming? Of course they did. This tidal wave of change was more like a slow-moving glacier. Everyone has been talking about the eventual demise of newspapers for years. Even newspaper executives saw it coming. Most have made attempts at creating websites that contain some content. But they’ve never been able to create the new business model that replaces the way they’ve done business since the invention of the printing press. Like the railroads that failed to realize they were in the transportation business, these guys have remained too focused on the delivery process to recognize their core business, and they’ve moved too slowly to adapt to their rapidly changing market.

 

So what does all of this have to do with higher education? I see all the warning signs that indicate we’re headed down the same path. We are a mature industry that is too dependent on its old ways of doing business to adapt to our rapidly changing market. Many institutions still waste valuable dollars on print advertising that students don’t read. They make only feeble attempts at offering online programs at a time when more than 20 percent of America’s students are enrolled in some distance education. And instead of reducing costs through improved performance, most administrators think more money is the answer, either through increased government support (like that’s going to happen) or increased tuition.

 

Will colleges and universities go out of business? Some will. But it would be interesting to look ahead 25 years at the way in which we will learn. The world is changing and, like it or not, we will change with it. The question is: will we be dragged along like the newspaper industry, or will we get out in front and lead the parade?

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