Newspapers as social artifacts

Recently I’ve started to notice when characters in movies or TV shows pick up a newspaper. The very first scene of the very first episode of the Sopranos comes to mind. Or when we first see Harrison Ford in Blade Runner.

Pretty soon it’s going to stand out as weird behavior, since fewer and fewer people are reading classic fishwrap anymore.

It’s strange to think that something we’ve had for so long—the daily paper—is on it’s way out the door. The business model makes less and less sense every day, and even PR firms are starting to advise their clients that a blog post could be more useful than a mention in the print Wall Street Journal.

This gets at the heart of what most newspapers need to figure out soon: do you keep the print product or set it loose?

I’ve argued that the best way to use your print product is to offer it for free. You get to keep the full-page ad revenue, but you reduce the size of your print edition and use it to promote your online product. That’s where you’ll make up for lost subscription revenue.

But that may not be the only option for a newspaper. Maybe raising subscription rates and creating a paid membership area on their web site is the way to go. It’s hard to know.

Remember that The Pitch is coming up a week from today, where we’ll all be discussing how viable the print model is going forward. Localism is sponsoring the drinks, and plenty of people are already signed up.

Hope to see you there.

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