Newspapers are obsolete--Part 3: New Horizons

As the financial difficulties for print journals pile up, lessons about what works and doesn't work online are being learned, and a variety of new models for delivering news and analysis are being tested.  Are the days of free content over?  Could the future be a non-profit news network organized around NPR and PBS?  Or Google?  Michael Massing explores it all in this NYRB article. 

Comments

[Christine]

A small town newspaper editor recently gave me some information that I had completely missed. The reason newspapers are in such trouble (his wasn't...because they have missed both of the big hits, having stable family ownership and a local ad base that can't be touched by things like Craigslist which have only regional ads in the area...no one is going to drive that far for small sales..etc.) is because these same newpapers made so much money in the '80s that they became takeover targets and were laden with massive debt. Then, the internet ad pressure came... He detailed the problems with the LA Times due its takeover....