A while back, I started thinking about how our information would be delivered to us in the future. Provoked by a discussion with futurist David Houle, I thought about how we are starting to favor the internet as a means of media delivery as opposed to traditional television or newspaper.

One reason I believe people favor the internet is that they can tailor their experience based on what they feel is important to them. If you’re a Wall Street fanatic, you may get your news from the online Wall Street Journal, or MarketWatch.com, or TheStreet.com.

If you’re primarily interested in what’s happening in your neighborhood, you might subscribe to your local newspaper’s online edition. For a world-view, there’s always the USAToday.

With this in mind, I started thinking about what will replace the traditional newspaper.

Many people prefer holding something tangible in your hand. For some, picking up the paper in the morning is what starts the day. Thumbing through the paper gives them insight to the events important to them.

But newspapers are expensive, both to print and to deliver. So what about an electronic newspaper?

My vision of the “newspaper of the future” is tangible, convenient, robust, and… reusable.

Stay with me here.

The newspaper of the future will look a lot like a magazine. You can fold it up and stash it in a briefcase, throw it in a duffel bag, and it will fit neatly on a bookshelf or in a desk drawer.

You will be able to turn the pages, just like a magazine, write on it just like a paper (for those who like to fill out the crossword puzzles) and it will be in full color.

Here’s the fun part: It will be completely electronic.

You will be able to customize your electronic paper such that only the articles you have an interest in will be delivered to you in your daily paper. You can divide your paper into sections: Front page, world news, financial, local, and let’s not forget the comic section!

You will download your news to your electronic paper at any time via a wireless connection. You’ll be able to turn tangible pages, with each page a proverbial computer screen with live content, including movies, discussion forums, chat rooms, etc.

You’ll be able to fill out the crossword puzzle with a stylus, much like one that accompanies a PDA.

The best part is that the tangible newspaper itself will be cheap, on the order of fifty cents apiece. Dropping your new-fangled electronic newspaper in a water puddle, rendering it useless will not cause much of a headache at all. Just run to the grocery store and pick up a new one with your milk and loaf of bread. A touch of a digital button will download your news to the new paper and you’ll be back into action in no time.

In the future, you will pay for content. Newspapers product line will be purely digital. Or perhaps the newspaper company will evaporate all together. Journalists will write articles and submit them to an online digital archive for the world to download. You will have the ability to select content based on topic, author, zip code, etc.

The electronic Kansas City Star of the future will be on the same playing field as the London Times.

Sound crazy? Think again! The technology is already here to make this future media fantasy happen!

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