The Newspaper Museum

Back in the day, I was one of those entrepreneurial urchins with a burlap sack over my shoulder taking a daily walk through the neighborhood to unload sheets of inked paper on people's doorsteps. I still see a paper on the sidewalk every once in awhile but those days are likely numbered. As Conde-Nast sheds 68-year old Gourmet Magazine this week, Jim Tyree's solo bid appears to be the last hope for the Sun-Times.

Is that kind of shift in the crystal ball for phone carriers as well, to what David Pogue calls "the right thing?" AT&T has announced it will allow VOIP as a service on its iPhones, which will certainly spread to Palm and other smartphones faster than a gps app. Even more than GoogleVoice, this development promises at the very least to change the way we think about minutes and calling plans.

Changing the rules

Have you ever gotten directions from someone with descriptions of one mile, two left turns, three stoplights, but no street address? And the ending address is what you really need to plug into your map application or GPS. The rules about giving directions have changed.

In business, you can adapt to the new rules like Verizon is doing with its rollout of 500 downloadable applications for their phones, (although new iPhone apps like copy & paste or a radio player came loaded on Verizon's Palm Centro last year). You'll also see the new rules about using your database to create most-popular and recommended lists, as well as offering text updates.

Or (sometimes) you can change the rules. Amazon changed the way we think about customer data, reviews and feedback. Now they're changing the way we think about books, as Adam Penenberg points out in the latest Fast Company, to adapt to the kind of rules Apple has already introduced for music.

The other option of course is to ignore the rules, as in the company formerly known as GM (of which you are now part-owner) and the major newspapers.