Predictions of the past on today’s media

Now times have changed. The digital revolution has meant that many of the great paradigms of communication are seen altered. The internet brought new media and a new way to access information. And although we can discuss everything related to the different business models needed to survive in this new scenario, once again, the problem is a result of new trends and habits. The following predictions have shaped what is now known as a digital press.

Kids watch the comics section of a faxpaper
being printed on a home receiver 

RCA Radial newspapers in 1930. In the early thirties, the radio was the worst enemy of newspapers seeking prevent broadcasters from transmitting news. Some radio stations, particularly WOR in New York, put into operation the news service called Transradio News, prompting the newspaper owners to make synergy with radio and experienced a new technology called Radio Facsimile either to deliver newspapers through radio waves. The idea was that unused frequencies of the radio spectrum could be concession to bring in the evenings, a newspaper through the "facsimile radio." These "Radio-fax-newspaper" could be printed at home while everyone was asleep, and find it ready to read upon waking without getting your hands dirty with ink. (Novak, 2015).

Philco-Ford Printer newspapers in 1967. Recently a chapter of the "XXI Century" hosted by Walter Cronkite entitled "At Home in 2001" which was originally broadcast on March 12, 1967, was broadcast on Discovery Channel. The program led to viewers of the late sixties to the futuristic world of 2001 in which the news would be sent via satellite and could be printed at home, at the touch of a button. The console offering a summary of news from around the world broadcast satellite (On April 6, 1965, was put into orbit the "Early Bird", the first commercial communications satellite) and pressing a button was enough to get a hard copy of the newspaper. (Schneider, n.d)

Los Angeles Times Magazine printed in LaserJet, 1988. The copy of April 3, 1988, issued by Los Angeles Times Magazine was devoted to what might be the city of Los Angeles in 2013. The prediction included much of what could be expected of futurism eighties: fingerprint verification at ATMs and access to public buildings, computers in classrooms, "smart" phones and home robots. As for predictions about the future of newspapers included electronic delivery to a personal computer, copies of newspapers. The idea was that the family received the newspaper on the computer only with the information of particular interest and news about your neighborhood; the computer would be programmed to print on a laser machine while the family sleeps. (Laser printers were invented in 1969). (LA Times, 1988).

Newspapers in a tablet, 1994. Still the internet was used with external modems that require a dedicated telephone line, when in 1994 the company Knight Rider, who until 2006 was a recognized media corporation specializing in newspapers and the Internet, provided a video showing what would be a daily tablet. The video can be watched online using this link. (Information Design Lab, 1995).
The traditional mass print media used to offer companies the ability to reach important audiences, but these, now increasingly fragmented and shrinking, along with increasingly more competitive metrics are pushing companies to focus their efforts on digital media. The print media has been lost, and there seems to be a trend that will change.

References

Information Design Lab. (1995). The Tablet newspaper: a vision of the future. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_QyktOw0JM

LATimes. (1988). Techno comforts and urban stress in 2013. Retrieved from http://documents.latimes.com/la-2013/

Novak, M. (2015). Fax papers: A Lost 1930s Technology That Delivered Newspapers via Radio. Retrieved from http://gizmodo.com/faxpapers-the-lost-dream-of-delivering-newspapers-thro-1682383694

Schneider, J. (n.d). The Newspaper of the Air:  Early Experiments with Radio Facsimile. Retrieved from http://www.theradiohistorian.org/Radiofax/newspaper_of_the_air1.htm