In remarks before a captive audience, Microsoft founder Bill Gates predicted Tuesday that five years out, newspapers will have nearly faded from existence as digital devices — readers, phones, computers, big screen displays, etc. — overtake print as a delivery medium. That forecast was made May 8th, in front of the 8th annual Strategic Account Summit of Microsoft’s global advertising partners.

As a Mac guy, I take much of what Mr. Gates has to say with a grain of salt. On this, though, there’s a basis for belief: readers habits, meaning younger readers, have little to do with print anymore and are almost entirely shaped by online reading.

I get a lot of news online, but I don’t enjoy reading online. But I’m not the market demo Gates refers to in predicting how we’ll be receiving information in the near future. The implications this holds for marketeers is significant. How will your message 1) be produced, and 2) be disseminated? The only thing at stake is your company’s survival.

I don’t think his five-year window is dead-on, but as newspaper circulation continues to decline I don’t think it’s far off, either.