Newspapers Likely Doomed

Newspapers could be on their way out. They're facing difficult business models making them decreasingly less profitable. Compounding this difficulty are greedy investors.

Inequality.org
Free the Free Press From Wall Street Plunder"These hedge-fund scavengers know nothing about journalism and care less. They’re ruthless Wall Street profiteers out to grab big bucks fast.

They slash journalistic and production staff, void employee benefits, shrivel the paper’s size and news content, sell the presses and other assets, and triple the price of their inferior product — and then declare bankruptcy, shut down the paper, and auction off the bones before moving on to plunder another town’s paper"

Reporters and news media face lots of challenges if they are to continue. People have demonstrated time and again their unwillingness to pay for online content. So too local advertisers share much of that same reluctance. Most people get their local information from social media. As do newspapers and TV in many cases these days because of staff reductions.

This may be fine for car accidents, assaults, robberies, neighborhood complaints and the like. However without a financially well off news organization having a robust number of investigative reporters this does nothing to provide oversight of government. Perhaps the very reason why the 1st amendment was enacted and that which should be their number one mission. Only robust well financed operations can afford to confront those who'd otherwise crush any individual or small group who tried to expose corruption. Indeed we do rely on government to take care of these things but it's the news media who calls them out when it fails to do it's job or when because of budget cuts government is unable.

Ok now we know the problem. What's the solution?
Well the first step is to break up these huge chains thereby making them less attractive to wall street investors. No group of investors should be allowed to own more then say two or three newspapers (like in the old days).

The second step would be to refocus almost entirely on local issues. These should be on the front page and at top of the webpage viewers first come across. In other words localize it. Investigative pieces should come first. News that will actually affect people second. All else behind those two.

Next comes the revenue problem
The first thing that comes to mind is reporters don't need a desk and office in a expensive building to get the job done. They could quite easily work at home or file their stories from out in the field. When needed show up at shared workspaces and conference rooms provided. About the only thing a reporter needs is a recorder and computer to get the job done.

A la carte pricing for various subscription delivery. For those online who wish to view advertisement free there'd be an offering for a small fee. Those who insist on hard copy home delivery there could be two levels. One the way it's done now (tossed out a car window). Another delivered right to the door with additional coupons and features published separately not offered elsewhere either online or at the lower tier.

Shared reporting. There's no sense paying separate reporters to duplicate the same reporting as another newspaper, radio or TV station. Why not coordinate? Perhaps several small independent newspapers, radio and TV stations could financially contribute to the formation of a separate organization to gather their news. This would also help offset the costs for expensive investigative reporting they'd otherwise not be able to afford. Sort of like a mini AP (Associated Press) designed just for this region.

Finally there is this.Just what if all the laid off media people got together and created a commercially sponsored website? There's no reason why they couldn't create a startup offering a little competition to those who've shunned them. When Huffington Post started out nobody thought it would amount of a hill of beans. Look where they are today. Hey ya never know.

Never give in to defeat!