Mark Potts posts some intriguing questions on his blog the Recovering Journalist about how some folks in the newspaper industry are still resisting the inevitable change. Mark is right: the thumb suckers among us have to get over it and move on. We're going to survive, but the newspaper as we know it will go away. He writes:
"In other words, there's no natural law that says the traditional newspaper business model - hire large staff, report news, sell ads, crush trees, smear ink on them, throw on doorsteps, collect some circulation revenue, reap 20 percent-plus profit margins - is inviolate. Unfortunately the reality may be that it's not the Web news business model that is broken-it's the print business model that's screwy."
Potts is right but I'd add there remains a good future for a blended print-digital product, albeit on a different economic scale. The print product of the future will be smaller and cater to a finite but influential group of "loyal" readers, no longer a one-size-fits-all product. That might mean no more TV grids, comics and fluff but a more serious and indepth magazine-style product that speaks to a more affluent and engaged audience. And that could be fun even if it's a smaller version of its former self.
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