No way Obama's abandoning the old press. In fact he pretty much brought the NYT and AP into his private meeting with Bush the other day, violating age-old protocol between presidents of honoring the confidences of high-level discussions. Kind of like "What's discussed in the Oval Office stays in the Oval Office." Obama came out of the room and leaked the discussion to the Times before evening. The Old Press will have its uses for Obama.

BTW a typo in the headline: boon (not boom), though the meanings do overlap here.

I don't think Obama would be so foolish as to communicate with people only with Web 2.0 technologies. He can't afford to ignore the press if he wants to communicate with the country, and he knows it. Perhaps what his adminstration is focusing on is the ability to gauge the mood of the people directly rather than relying on what the press deems is newsworthy. In other words, his administration won't limit its communications to the press, and it won't limit its information sources to the press, either.

Instead of mourning the old order -- trusted experts reporting vetted information -- the press that also embraces the new order -- many sources of incomplete information that add up to a complex, valuable picture -- may find that the new administration continues to value it as an information source.

There are over 37,837,365 verified print subscribers in our state. Does Obama really want to alienate that many people?

For those of us who enjoy reading the newspaper, getting news/information via the internet is time-consuming, frustrating & inconvenient. It's okay for headlines & "shorts", but for in-depth information, I go to a newspaper. Not only do I get more information, I can see & read a full page of news at a glance.

The internet should not replace the newspaper, it should - like radio & TV - become just another medium, but not the only medium.

I have to disagree with you on change.gov being "social" or "Web 2.0."

Their blog --which hasn't been updated in TWO days!?-- does not allow you, the people, to submit comments.

Their "Share your story" and "Share your vision" links simply bring up an online form you fill out and submit. It's just like the "contact us" pages that Web sites have had for 10+ years. Who knows where it goes. /dev/null?

You, the people, are not generating content for change.gov. You're just giving a political campaign your contact information so they can spam you. Interesting end-run around the dinosaur media, alright. But I get enough junk mail as it is, thanks!

Elvis? I'm sure thirty years from now, will people dress up as "The Newspaper" for Halloween? But will they go as the fat Chicago Tribune or the skinny one?

Of slight concern to me is the, "What does Obama's promise of change mean?" (With yourself injected into the answer)--- That question, if not somehow carefully managed, will devolve into cultural phenomenon as cynical schtick. Like Fat Elvis.

It's a good idea, but I wonder if he means he's going to bypass them. That wouldn't be smart. The press gets very offended when they feel they're not being told everything...and first. They do control a lot of the web in addition to the traditional media, so if I were him, I would not go out of my way to dis them.

But, he needs to communicate well if he knows what's good for him. Reagan was a great communicator because he went on TV regularly whenever he wanted to push an agenda and he got the people behind his initiative - the opposite of that is George W, who spent the last 8 years isolated in the Oval Office. The man never made a national speech unless he absolutely had to - 9/11, Katrina, and State of the Union.

FDR is a good example for Obama to follow. Even though his policies turned a recession into a 12-year depression, by communicating regularly with the people he convinced a nation that "doing anything" was the right thing.

If Obama plans to raise taxes during a recession...whoa nelly is he going to need to communicate a lot to keep the people on his side!!!

I took a flight on the morning of the 5th and people were literally taking/requesting papers back from the flight attendant as she started collecting them before landing, -they would just ask for her pile and sift through snathing up any remaining front pages, as well as swapping these amongst themselves -pretty fascinating.

It's refreshing to see the White House embrace the latest communications technologies but a key distinction must be made between the Obama Campaign and the Obama Administration. One's purpose is to sell a candidate and the other is required to use communications to be accountable to the American people. While we all know a president has to sell his ideas to the public as part of leadership, it wasn't too long ago that the Health and Human Services Department got blasted for, among other things, using Video News Releases (so 20th century). But the critics said VNRs were propaganda and tax dollars should not be used for such purposes. I disagreed then, and I'd disagree now.

But now there's even talk in congress of not allowing the Pentagon to hold press conferences on the same grounds - that the military would be engaging in propagandizing simply by using age-old PR techniques.

I hope Obama's administration brings the White House's PR effort into the 21st century. And I hope other government branches follow suit without allegations that they are engaging in the spread of propaganda. To me it's all about accountability and information.