Now that so many of us get our news delivered to us online through blogs, rss feeds, Twitter, and a whole range of other less-mediated mediums, we really are living in Henry Luce’s century old world where we thirst for news but are drowning in information.

The effective boundlessness of the internet leads us to believe that the world is filled with infinite viewpoints, and our post-modern educations have led us to believe that all these views are important.

Never has the role of gate-keeper, of taste-maker, been more important than it is now. Print’s cost and limited carrying capacity forces curators to become editors; ruthless decisions actually get made.

What we thought we were paying for in newspapers was all the news that was in them. In fact, the main role of the newspaper was to decide what to leave out.

We need more of this today, not less. Print provides the impetus for this discipline.