Wishful thinking? The News-and-Views Industry of the 21st Century: There's nothing in or about a newspaper that the internet can't do better, except one: it's paper. You can take it with you and read it on the subway, or on a bench in the park. Plus, your eyes get tired of staring at a computer screen all day. The best thing about a newspaper is that it's paper.
Which leads me to this conclusion: The best way for newspapers to cut costs, and thus maintain profit margins, may be to outsource writing responsibilities. Content is cheap and abundant, because, as I mentioned before, information is a non-rival good. The comparative advantage of a newspaper is not content provision. For finding talent, and as the prime forum for the exchange of news-and-views, the blogosphere and the internet are better adapted. It's printing and distributing to people's doorsteps every morning dozens of pages of newsprint, portable and easy on the eye, that newspapers and newspapers alone do best. They should focus on that.
A generation from now, running a newspaper will be pretty simple. One, you'll surf the web for good articles, debates, the latest major speeches, think tank reports, and blog posts. Two, select fifty thousand words or so of the best, most relevant content, in a variety of styles. Third, contact the writers for permission to syndicate, decide which fees (for those who ask them) are worth paying, and transfer the appropriate amount to their PayPal accounts. Fourth, correspond with advertisers, and assemble all the ads that are ready to print on a given day. Fifth, lay out your paper. Sixth, send it to the printers. Seventh, distribute it. Your staff will consist of web-surfing editors-and-content-finders, layout people and printers, and delivery boys with bikes, plus a staff to drum up advertisers and maybe a few reporters who deal with local issues.
Newspapers, in short, will end up carrying water for the blogosphere.
