The effect of new media on newspapers is currently a common topic of discussion. I was amused to read in this Wired News article that Retired U.S. General Colin L. Powell was the keynote speaker for the Newspapers 2000 conference. He compared the fall of the Soviet Union to the rise of new media.

“The world I knew, the world that was comfortable for me was gone,” Powell said about his work after Gorbachev announced his adherence to perestroika and glasnost. “Just like me you will have to adjust. You will have to be shaped by the power of information technology and find your place in a world that has changed.”