A Historical Perspective On New Technology Adoption

One of the push backs I often hear about news organizations transitioning their business center of gravity to digital is that journalists don’t want to adopt new online and digital technologies.

Well, these cycles have happened before. In 1982, Jim Fallows wrote an article for The Atlantic about his experience as one of the first journalists to use a word processor:

The process works this way. When I sit down to write a letter or start the first draft of an article, I simply type on the keyboard and the words appear on the screen.

Here’s another historical perspective on the challenge of adopting new technology (RSS and email subscribers need to click through to see the video).

Of course, previous technology adoption cycles haven’t come associated with a rapid collapse of business models. So adopting new technology isn’t just about increasing productivity. It’s about survival.