This was the warning signal for newspapers. So few listened in a timely manner. Mark Potts, who kindly posted this memo, wrote in another post the timeline of newspaper think. I remember friends who worked at newspapers in the online department in the mid-2000s stating the higher ups refused to acknowledge the medium.
Thanks for the link. I think this summed it up pretty well: 1998: Oh wow--we may have missed the boat on the Internet. 2000: Ha! We were right! Just a fad! Phew! All is well! 2005: Are newspapers a great business, or what?? 2008: Oh shit 2012: Help! We'll do whatever you tell us to do! Just make it stop!! I first started using the Internet in 1995 and honestly, I could see how someone would have thought it was "just a fad" if they were too old to realize how exciting it was. It would be like a manufacturer of board games playing atari and thinking the same thing. -Short sighted.1995: This Internet thing? Just a fad. The CB radio of the '90s.