As the late Wendell Ashton recounted in "A Voice in the West," the book he published in 1950 on the 100-year anniversary of the Deseret News, "The News had presented 'want ads' since its first edition in 1850 ... and a good chunk of News revenue had come from notices seeking stray cattle. But during the nineties they began to appear in a column headed with 'Wanted.' In 1894 there were only about a half dozen midget-size advertisements appearing in the column. By the end of 1898 the News was running about five columns of classified advertisements daily. As an important News department they had come to stay, and to grow."

Truer words were never more understated. Throughout the 20th century, the want ads paced many a paper to prosperity. It's incalculable how many goods and services have been sold, bought, offered, solicited and traded through the little 8-point type in the back of the paper.

Like most cash cows, the conventional wisdom was that this one would last forever. Who could imagine anyone not selling their car in the newspaper?

But then along came the World Wide Web and the personal computer, and the masses didn't need to flock to just one community bulletin board any more. Suddenly, there were all kinds of choices, many not only cheaper but with much bigger audiences.

Add in the convenience that newspapers can now be read online, papers without paper, and it's clear why the industry is having to reinvent itself — and let me add in a personal aside, hopefully in a hurry.

It's another reminder that even things that you're sure will last forever, don't.

And if you think they will, remember back to when you would buy film for your camera, pay for it with a check, write a letter when you wanted to correspond with someone, find a pay phone if you wanted to talk to them, watch television on three networks, sit through all the commercials because you couldn't fast forward past them, play golf with wooden clubs, listen to cassette tapes you bought at a record store, and write it all down in your day planner. And the Yankees were always in first place.

That was, what, 20 years ago?

There is no gold standard. Just ask the gold standard. Or anyone who thought the profusion of classified ads in that old rag that landed daily in your flower bed would never end.

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Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.