The Newspaper Industry Meltdown

Comments

[Heather]

Love it!

[newscoma]

Holy hell if that isn't the most awesome thing I've seen in awhile.
Bravo!

[Vera]

Great explanation. Is there any way newspapers can be a vibrant part of our media or are things too far gone?

[Daniel]

I don't think it's too late at all. In fact, newspapers have all sorts of things going for them in this new information economy, and the smart ones are going to figure out how to leverage what they have and will do just fine.

The hard part for many of them (and I get the daily Romanesko e-mail that talks about all the newspaper industry gossip/buzz/zeitgeist, so I can say this with some conviction) is that there are very few top executives who understand what's happening, and very few corporate boards that will be able to explain to stockholders that the days of monopoly profits are over.

The newspapers that will survive (and in isolated cases, thrive) will be the ones whose executives adapt to the notion that 7 percent profit is an excellent year, and you take your 5 percent profit years without eating your seed corn.

But there will be a deep shakeout over the next 12 to 18 months. By the time it's over, we'll be on our way to building the world's first non-advertising-subsidized information economy. Which should be interesting, to say the least.

[geofftech]

Dan, this is genius. Total genius!

[gregorylent]

newspapers are no loss at all. look at the pile of unread ones in the house. look at the junk journalism of even the best (invade iraq cheerleaders). look at the celebrity gossip. look at what makes the news and what is left out. look at the status quo mindset and value system that works to keep people in a particular mindset about the world.

[Peg]

Great, Dan.

(And would you care to hazard a guess as to which papers will survive/even thrive?)

[Huffman]

My big concern is this: what will we line cat cages with at the Feral Cat Coalition once all the newspapers fold?