Gameplan for Newspapers

The product for newspapers is its News brand, not method of delivery.

Once that is embraced by upper leadership, then the revenue doors will open. Some thoughts:

Problem 1:
90% of newspaper readership is online, yet print generates 90% of the revenues.

Solution:
1) Charge more for print product, lower production by ~40%, and invest the difference into the online product
2) Hire community bloggers. OWN local
3) Marry tech + ad sales groups, integrate AdReady
4) Form major strategic with KIRO or KOMO to provide video feeds on all news--result is the leading multimedia news network in the Seattle DMA.
5) Monetize RSS via per-call fee, no more non-monetized content. I love RSS, but until it can be monetized, it's killing the news industry.
6) Upgrade digital sales efforts and online delivery infrastructures.

It's highly likely the traditional (newspapers, local TV) local news industry converges into a single multimedia news network to continue owning the local news space for years to come.

Otherwise it's survival of the fittest and most traditional news co's are fatter than they are fit right now so it's a challenging reversal because of the 90/10 problem.

I believe in the future of newspapers. Their media brands will ultimately keep the industry alive, but not all will survive. Hopefully the P-I will.

Chris McCoy
www.yoursports.com