Print vs. Digital

I don’t view it as versus—there’s simply an evolution in media, and it’s moving toward digital. It’s just the way of the world. Newspapers performed a huge function for many decades, but the world has changed now: there is video, and there are photo galleries, and it’s all born of immediacy. When people can get things on demand, then publishing cycles just really don’t work anymore, fundamentally. If people have a choice of getting news or entertainment when they want versus when they have to, of course they’re going to choose when they want. I don’t feel that we in digital have a better medium than print—we’re just different. When I started TMZ, I came from a television show called Celebrity Justice, and we were really saddled by timing. There were times when we’d have to break our news on CNN. Suddenly, when the Web and the idea for TMZ both came around, it just occurred to me I could break things not only when I want but when I have them. So it’s not print versus digital. I don’t see it as a contest. It’s just an immovable, unstoppable force.