Someone sent me this link to a blog post by Clay Shirky, a writer, consultant and adjunct professor at New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program, on the future of newspapers and, by extension, publishing. It's eye-opening, and a little scary.The consensus is that newspapers are dying, killed off by the Internet and the unlimited ability to share content that once had been both proprietary and closely guarded. Last week's demise of the Rocky Mountain News is just the latest evidence that the consensus is right.

Content is intellectual property. Owners of content used to be compensated by the price of a subscription, or by advertising in the vehicle that carried the content. But how do owners of content get compensated when the content, once sold to a single buyer, becomes ubiqutous, and free for anyone and everyone else?

I certainly don't have the answers; neither does Shirky. But I guess this is what a revolution feels like, when the old order is unravelling before the new has yet been woven. I had to share this. Comments, even jeers and epithets, are welcome.