Not Dead -- Digital

Sam Zell, a multi-billionaire investor who successfully boomed and bailed on radio ownership and commercial real estate, is now stuck in a prolonged bankruptcy for the Tribune Corporation, whose holdings include the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times. He sees their future as paperless.

Amazon led the way to a paperless digital revolution in books and newspapers, but we shouldn't think of their Kindle as just hardware. It represents more in terms of marketing, or distribution channel.

Audio Embed: APM's Future Tense 7/2/10, Host: John Moe.

New distribution channels often struggle with their business models, for example Hulu.

After positioning themselves as providing TV anywhere, anytime for free, will people pay for access to more episodes of the material the ABC, Fox, NBC partnership streams over the internet?

Audio Embed: APM's Future Tense 7/1/10, Host: Jeff Horwich.

Note: In the July 2nd edition of NPR's On The Media, host Brooke Gladstone presents an updated rebroadcast of an hour-long show on books, the publishing business and their future.