Is Tech media dying?

[Foo Fighter]

For those that haven't yet heard, CNET Radio...long time pioneer of daily tech news in audio format...is no more. They have ceased 24 hour broadcast operations.

This brings to mind a serious problem I have watched unfold over the past three years. Tech news media seems to be dying away. Time after time I've seen one great news site after another slip away into oblivion. First it was PC World News Radio...then it was Byte.com....then WinMag.com and WinMag Audio Review....then CNET TV....then Silicon Spin....then Computer Chronicles....and now CNET Radio and Anchordesk.com. Considering all their financial troubles, it won't be much longer before TechTV joins the ranks of dead tech media firms.

And this is where the problem exists. As the song says..."Who's gonna fill their shoes?" CNET Radio was the last major news stream on the web. All that exists now is Ken Radio, which is by no means a poor program, but it certainly can't fill CNET Radio's shoes. And TechTV? When they go under, what other tech news program will there be? None. I've enjoyed the ability to listen to live or archived news streams on the web. Now that is coming to an end. I can't be sure whether this is merely a side-effect of the poor economy, or whether this is an indication that Tech media is not an enduring venue. Whatever the cause, the aftershock will be felt far and wide for everyone. :cry:

[Rirath]

I'm honestly not surprised. C|Net has been dying for many years now. Really I don't think it's so much that the tech news industry is dying, I think it's just C|Net dying and taking a lot of things down with them. They've went down hill for ages now, only download.com still manages to be worthwhile. Who knows how long that will last.

Maybe it's just me, but I personally feel the net has outgrown programs like C|Net radio and C|Net TV. Users want information on demand, dynamic and up to date. With bandwidth getting cheaper, dynamic pages getting more and more powerful, and servers to serve it doubling in speed every few years it's more and more the only reasonable alternative. By the time the program airs, the information is horribly old.

Besides, things aren't all doom and gloom. Many places have that TechTV channel. All Tech all the time. Combine with a TiVo and you're in business.

[Foo Fighter]

I'm honestly not surprised. C|Net has been dying for many years now.

It isn't just CNET though. The picture is much larger.

With bandwidth getting cheaper

Bandwidth hasn't gotten that much cheaper. It is still too expensive for average users, and the adoption rate isn't too good.

Besides, things aren't all doom and gloom. Many places have that TechTV channel. All Tech all the time. Combine with a TiVo and you're in business.

TechTV isn't going to be here much longer. They are owned by Paul Allen's vulcan ventures, and so far TechTV has proven to be a huge loss. I doubt they will survive the next twelve months.

[Rirath]

Foo, there's never a time when things aren't doom and gloom with you man. :wink:

About bandwidth... well all I can tell you is over the past two-three years my bandwidth has increased again and again without costing me a dime extra. I was actually speaking of server bandwidth. These days servers can give bandwidth limits that a few years ago would have seemed impossible. It may all seem unrelated, but I think it's making a big difference.