The Big Switch - Chapter Eight - The Great unbundling

After peaking in 1984 with 64 million copies, the daily circulation of American news papers fell steadily, reaching 55 million in 2004. Newspapers try to bundle a lot of information together. When a newspaper moves online, the bundle falls apart. People go directly to the story that interests them, often ignoring everything else.

With the advent of context-based ads, the most successful article is the one which not only draws a lot of readers but also attracts high-priced ads. Unbundling is not unique to newspapers, it's the common feature of most online media. iTunes has unbundled music, services like TiVo are unbundling television, sites like YouTube unbundle video. Amazon and Google book search are unbundling even books, showing articles and snippets.

However, too much transparent personalization might lead to segregation since deliberations among like-minded people leads to "ideological amplification". The economist Thomas Schelling, who won the Nobel Prize eventually for his insight, explained how "small incentives, almost imperceptible differentials, can lead to strikingly polarized results". The view that the web will lead to a greater harmony must be examined with skepticism. Cultural impoverishment and social fragmentation seem equally likely outcomes.

The Big Switch: Our New Digital Destiny By Nicholas Carr