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March 19, 2009

10 Steps to save the newspaper

I ganked this from someone’s Twitter feed, but I don’t remember whose. I’m sorry, but I haven’t really adapted to Twitter’s bizarre convention of ADD sufferers to really be able to pay proper attention. Things just fly by and I’m like the wallflower at the party, smiling in the corner. Anyway, ten steps to save the paper.

There’s been a lot of talk recently about the imminent death of the traditional newspaper. And with good reason. Over the last year or so several papers, both minor and major, have gone belly up. There are many reasons for this trend: More people are turning to the internet to get their news. The internet has opened the door for other outlets such as TV networks and online service providers like Google and Yahoo! to provide news. And more and more people are turning to blogs, social networks, discovery engines and other non-traditional sources to filter and supply the news they want when they want it.

Considering the way and pace at which the world is progressing, from cell phones with internet access to the plugged-in reality of both office and home life it’s no wonder then the trusted pile of thin paper that shows up on doorsteps throughout the world is starting to lose its foothold.

But does this mean the time of the traditional newspaper is over? Not by a long shot. It does however mean it is time the newspaper business starts looking at the way they do business and change their perception of themselves as a publishing house to a news provider.

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3 comments on “10 Steps to save the newspaper”

  1. Lilian Nattel says:

    That makes a lot of sense–but how would it be funded?

  2. Morten Rand-Hendriksen says:

    Lillian: The problems print media and especially newspapers are facing are caused by a lack of willingness to explore new revenue streams. By jumping head first into online marketing and creating new and different revenue streams through online advertising and video advertising there is a good chance they can end up earning more money than they ever did with print. It’s not really a question of if it’s possible but whether or not they are willing to break the mold and try something new.

  3. rr says:

    A lot of this assumes the newspaper is going to draw in enough readers to pay for everything. For small market papers they would have to bring in readers from outside their region, which means advertisers would pay more because of the massive increase in readership. If those same advertisers were making the same amount of money, but paying more they would stop advertising, which would lead to lower revenues for the paper. Use a paper the size of the Woodstock Bugle-Observer as an example. They couldn’t hire videographers to follow the journalists around because it would cost too much. The market is way to small to support something like that. Heavy traffic doesn’t always translate into ad revenue.

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