Newspapers to disappear by 2040: UN agency chief

Newspapers will disappear and be replaced by digital versions by 2040, the UN intellectual property agency's chief said in an interview published on Monday.

Francis Gurry, who heads the World Intellectual Property Organisation told the daily La Tribune de Geneve that "in a few years, there will no longer be printed newspapers as we know it today."

"It's an evolution. There's no good or bad about it. There are studies showing that they will disappear by 2040. In the United States, it will end in 2017," he said.

Gurry noted that in the United States there are already more digital copies sold than paper copies of newspapers. In cities, there are also fewer bookshops.

A key problem is the revenue system.

"How can editors find revenues to pay those who write these articles?" asked Gurry, noting that "the copyright system must be safeguarded as a mechanism to pay these writers."

(c) 2011 AFP