“I’m afraid I have some bad news” she says. “Due to the recession, it will not be possible to print the guide this year. Apologies for any inconvenience this causes”.  Sadly this email excerpt from Claire Wiley, city editor of Itchy Magazine, which landed in my inbox, represents the demise (in print) of the comprehensive guide to all things Manchester. Not a trendy bar or underground night could open without Itchy knowing about it, with contributors rapidly forming their ear-to-the-ground opinions and consequently influencing Mancunian habits.

The demise of print media is far from a new concept. With newspapers as large scale as the LA Times putting all their eggs in the online basket, the scope and access opportunities, combined with changing readership habits, makes online press a sensible, cost-effective solution.

Which in turn begs the question: as in the small scale case of Itchy Manchester, what is there now to distinguish it from the hoards of other opinions the web has to offer? As print media struggles to stay afloat, for how long will we regard the institution of the national press above that of the common opinion we find so trustworthy on the internet

An analogy can be found within the UK music industry, which has been crippled by the MySpace generation and the abundance of free music. With tracks so readily available, what a piece of music is worth in our song led culture has become almost impossible to define, to the extent that Prince gives his albums away for free as cover-mounts or on stadium seats and The Thurston Revival charge $100 for a 7” single. Who is to say which is better or of more worth?

So where have those let down by the music industry fled in search of fame and possible fortune? To social media of course. Twitter has just launched Twestival, with artists signing up in their hundreds to donate tracks and in turn garner literally worldwide appeal, from major label acts to complete unknowns fighting for a media presence on the same platform. With tracks available to download on a pay-what-you-like basis, the ball is firmly in the court of the consumer, or rather the social networking consumer.

Perhaps this model also represents the future path of our news sources. As people become increasingly unwilling or have increasingly little need to pay for their news, and the domain of the geek monopolises the mainstream, the supposed value of print media will inevitably fall under intense review. In the music industry, the cream will rise to the top as the music aficionado at large chooses what is relevant and worthy, as can been seen in the success of Arctic Monkeys via mass MySpace approval. The challenge for the national press, therefore, is surely in maintaining the quality and reliability that formed its popularity in the first place, with an association with social media the inevitable, and advisable, path.