31 March 2008

"Newspaper Ad Revenue Down 7.9%" - NYTimes.com

The newspaper business in the United States is in a desperate position. There are certain fundamentals needed to run a newspaper as now organized and they are in serious jeopardy of eroding, declining and disappearing.

What is needed is a fresh effort to pick up the critically important pieces of what made newspapers valuable to people -- both the editorial content and the advertising content, plus related services mostly not carrying adverting -- and reassert them in a new context more viable in today's world.

Only one newspaper needs to do this in order to show the way. Which one will it be? Time is slipping by us and the business very fast. Who will step forward and show that a newspaper, conceived in the public service history of the business, determined to make the lives of its customers better, respected, determined and valuable....that such a newspaper can succeed and in digital terms, besignificantly but professional of the people, by the people and very much for the people that newspaper seeks to serve.

Who will it be? Pretty soon, there will be no time for volunteers.

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