The newspaper as we know it is dying. Revenue and profits are down and the cost of newsprint is up. But for the most part, the newspaper industry is stubbornly refusing to make any substantial changes. They're just assuming that eventually someone will figure out the new model - whether it be foundation-backed, purely web-based, or user-generated - and then everything will be fine.
But what if the new model isn't discovered for 20 years? What will newspapers do then? Alternatives to mass buyouts need to appear. A simple solution would be to adopt the model used by the The Capital Times in Madison, WI. Publish less frequently and post most stories exclusively on the web.
More expensive than writing a newspaper (the cost of reporters, editors, etc.) is the cost of distributing a newspaper. But the writing is what actually gives the paper its value. So why not distribute less?
The most obvious thing to do, for many papers, is to cease Saturday publication. No one reads the paper on Saturdays, and most in the news industry will acknowledge saving most of their good stories for Sunday anyway. So why even publish on Saturday?
Other papers could cut down to publishing twice (like The Capital Times) or three times a week instead of just cutting the Saturday paper. The one downfall to this is that news would get to readers later - but I think for most news, if people really, really, really need to know, they're finding out from television before they even pick up the paper. (I also think the whole issue of timeliness in journalism is overrated, but that's a separate post.)
The sad thing is, although this makes sense, it seems that no one in the newspaper industry would dare suggest it.
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