Business - Written Friday, February 20, 2009 by Naumi Haque - 4 Comments

TIME tells newspaper industry how to save itself

Here’s an “in case you missed it” story. I was reading the newspaper recently and came across a reference to Walter Isaacson article “How to Save Your Newspaper.” Ironic that I came across this quite poignant article about the demise of the newspaper business model by reading a newspaper acquired via subscription. In any case, Isaacson makes some great points:

More people are reading the news, but fewer people are paying for it. There’s definitely a prosumer angle here, but it’s still one of those things that make you go “hmm” when you consider the amount of professional content being given away for free.

“There is, however, a striking and somewhat odd fact about this crisis. Newspapers have more readers than ever. Their content, as well as that of newsmagazines and other producers of traditional journalism, is more popular than ever — even (in fact, especially) among young people. The problem is that fewer of these consumers are paying. Instead, news organizations are merrily giving away their news. According to a Pew Research Center study, a tipping point occurred last year: more people in the U.S. got their news online for free than paid for it by buying newspapers and magazines.”

That’s not to say that people wouldn’t pay for the news. Isaacson derides Internet and phone service providers for failing to make available the technology to allow third parties to use their micro-payment system that works so effectively for text messages and ring tones. In reality, the Ma Bell’s of the world will probably miss the boat on this one.

“We have a world in which phone companies have accustomed kids to paying up to 20 cents when they send a text message but it seems technologically and psychologically impossible to get people to pay 10 cents for a magazine, newspaper or newscast.”

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