“If we don’t have […] the sort of subscribers that are willing to pay for what we’re doing, we have no future” – John R. MacArthur

     According to John R. MacArthur, president of Harper’s Magazine, free content is ruining journalism. In a recent episode of The VICE Podcast, MacArthur attributes the abundant free news from the internet with the “[dumbing] down” of magazines and newspapers.  The surplus of information has caused the price consumers are willing to pay for content to drop, leaving writers struggling as publishers ask even prestigious journalists to work for free. Popular online news sources such as The Huffington Post have become little more than compilations of information from external sources. MacArthur argues that for the quality of publications to revive, free content must cease– only when publishers are supported financially by their subscribers will writers be able to be compensated properly; giving them more incentive and allowing journalism to once again to be a viable career.
While economically this makes sense, it contrasts with the internet’s composition– information shared and accessed from different sources. Harper’s has managed to stay afloat even though they’ve been largely absent online– only time will tell how far their success will go, when information is more readily accessible than ever.

Watch/listen to the full podcast here.

Sources:

http://www.vice.com/read/the-vice-podcast-is-free-content-ruining-journalism

http://mashable.com/2013/07/08/harpers-magazine-digital-revolution/

Google recently revealed Calico, a new medical venture aimed at tackling issues of aging and death.

  Technology giant and pioneer Google has recently announced that they were investing a large section of their resources into a new medical company, Calico, whose goal is to fight aging, and to eventually “solve death”. However far fetched this goal may seem, the technology being investigated is in demand by a market that is growing larger by the second. With the quality and length of life becoming better and larger than ever, demographics are shifting dramatically. In areas of high recent economic growth such as Hong Kong, the percentage of the population over the age of 65 is 14%, and is expected to reach 40% in 2050. While efforts have been made by the Hong Kong government with success to improve their health care to accommodate the aging population, less developed countries such as China, with their one-child policy, are struggling to keep up. With the one child policy, demographers are seeing what they are describing as the 4:2:1 problem, where for each person of working age, there are two aging parents and four dependant seniors. Google’s developments in this field will hopefully mean better technology in helping aging citizens stay healthy and productive for longer than ever.

Sources: http://www.forbes.com/sites/benjaminshobert/2013/10/03/todays-best-business-opportunity-global-aging/

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/03/tech/innovation/google-calico-aging-death/index.html?hpt=hp_c3