When the Internet first came into widespread use I was working as a librarian at a public library in Holland, Mich.
Almost immediately, we librarians worried the Internet would be a threat to our jobs. Instead, it eliminated a rather tedious aspect of our responsibilities of looking up bestsellers and freed us up to concentrate on more in-depth research.
Not only did our jobs get more interesting but we also started attracting a more sophisticated audience.
The same can be said for the newspaper industry. Rather than worry the Internet is going to put us out of business, we’ve learned to embrace its possibilities. Today you can read the Register on your computer, laptop, iPad or smart phone.
Our next step is a service to help develop and maintain websites, playing off our strengths as designers and wordsmiths.
If you can’t beat them, join them.
FROM A totally selfish perspective, I wish the Internet had never been invented. I didn’t want people’s reading habits to change.
It’s forced the newspaper industry to re-evaluate almost every aspect of its production and it’s been a lot of work to remake ourselves. I also know that had I not made these changes, the newspaper would become more and more irrelevant with each passing generation.
People’s tastes change and if a business — or community — wants to remain competitive, it must change, too.
In a small town like Iola, it’s easy to think we can isolate ourselves from the outside world. We can take care of our own, the thinking goes.
This very mentality has come to light recently by a small group opposed to efforts to build apartments next to a new grocery store.
Instead of looking at the new development as an opportunity for the community, they view it as a threat to their personal livelihoods as landlords.
“Shop local,” is their self-serving mantra, never mind that you can count on one hand the number of available apartments in town.
They also think that if we just renovate the existing stock, we’ll have more than enough housing opportunities.
