Postcards

How the power players do it - by Fortune senior editor at large Patricia Sellers

Power Point: Farewell to print!

June 25, 2009: 8:30 PM ET

"All content consumed will be digital...social...and interactive."

- Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer, predicting the death of print yesterday at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. After Ballmer, in a talk to 1,000 or so ad and media folks, floated this prediction about the world within 10 years, I interviewed him on stage. Stay tuned to Postcards these next few days. I'll share some of what the always boisterous Ballmer said, about Bing and Yahoo (YHOO) and Google (GOOG) and more.

Turns out, we had so much ground to cover yesterday that I didn't get to ask him if he means, by his prediction, that magazines and newspapers won't exist on paper in 2019. Does Ballmer really think that my company, Time Inc. (TWX), won't be printing anything on paper a decade from now?

The man answers. Here I am, back in New York and sitting in my living room, taking in the news about Michael Jackson's death. An email from Ballmer popped in moments ago: "I really really think print goes away." Well, good for Microsoft, I guess. For us journalists, more pressure to adapt.

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About This Author
Pattie Sellers
Patricia Sellers
Senior Editor at Large, Fortune
Executive Director of MPW/Live Content, Time Inc.

Fortune senior editor at large Pattie Sellers has written some of Fortune's most talked-about cover stories, including "Marissa Mayer: Ready to Rumble at Yahoo," "Oprah's Next Act," "Can Meg Whitman Save California?" "The $100 Billion Woman" (Melinda Gates), and "Remodeling Martha" (Martha Stewart). She has helped oversee Fortune's "Most Powerful Women in Business" package every year since its launch in 1998. Pattie is Executive Director of the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, the preeminent gathering of women leaders in business and beyond. She oversees MPW programs that enable women leaders to extend their influence and empower the next generation—such as Fortune MPW Entrepreneurs and the Fortune-U.S. State Department Global Women Leaders Mentoring Partnership. Beyond her Fortune duties, she is also developing Live Content across Time Inc. Pattie grew up in Allentown, PA, graduated from the University of Virginia, and started at Fortune in 1984. Her blog, Postcards, is about how power players lead, manage others, and navigate their careers.

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