We think there is sufficient likelihood that the new technologies are going to change the way that consumers receive and consume information to begin taking what we consider to be the baby steps.
Predictor: Perry III, Victor A.
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 London Guardian article about the L.A. Times’ decision to begin to publish an online version of its newspaper, Robin Hunt quotes media critic Jon Katz and talks with Victory Perry, vice president of new business development at the L.A. Times. Hunt writes:”In ‘Online or Not, Newspapers Suck,’ the media critic of New York magazine, Jon Katz, wrote: ‘Online newspapers are unnatural, even silly … So far, at least, online papers don’t work commercially or conceptually. With few exceptions, they seem to be just what they are, expensive hedges against on-rushing technology with little rationale of their own. They take away what is best about reading a paper and don’t offer what is best about being online’ … ‘Our goal,’ says Victor Perry, vice president of new business development at the L.A. Times, ‘is to reach beyond the hard-core techies … we know we won’t be able to get to the technophobic.’ Perry claims the gestation period for a serious online service is around two years, but he is certain the decision to invest many millions of dollars in 1992 was correct. ‘We think there is sufficient likelihood that the new technologies are going to change the way that consumers receive and consume information to begin taking what we consider to be the baby steps.’ In the L.A. Times scenario, these newspapers will arrive on the home computer via a modem, or on new forms of video-phones with large screens.”
Date of prediction: October 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: Newspapers
Name of publication: The Guardian (London)
Title, headline, chapter name: Starting From Database One: The L.A. Times is Going Online
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
T16
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Kohlhagen, Kelly C.