Rest in peace, E&P: Killed by an aggregator

As someone who has experienced the death of his own publication, my heart goes out to the folks at Editor & Publisher, especially Joe Strupp, who always approached coverage of the newspaper industry with passion.

But perhaps there's a lesson in what happened to the industry trade magazine that other journalists should take seriously.

In 2006, I wrote a blog post with the headline, "Why Editor & Publisher has become irrelevant."

Three years later, it's dead.

It's easy to underestimate the power of aggregation. But the truth, in my view, is that Romenesko replaced Editor & Publisher long ago as the place where journalists turned to find out what was going on in their world. It's not limited by one medium or industry. It's timely. And it's deep. The magazine couldn't compete. And it's not just Romenesko. There are many sites and blogs to turn to today to learn what's going on in journalism. Which is why E&P couldn't survive as a viable business. I know many would like to think that the same thing couldn't happen to other publications. I wouldn't if I were them.