My Crazy Plan to Save the Newspaper Business

But it only sounds crazy—if you actually did it, you could change all the rules of journalism

A friend asked me, how would I save the newspaper business?

That’s a tall order, because this industry has been in decline for decades. Since 2005, around 2,500 newspapers have closed down in the US. During the pandemic alone, more than 350 newspapers disappeared, and they continue to shut down at the rate of two per week.

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Over one-fifth of people in the US now live in a local news desert, where coverage of their communities either doesn’t exist, or will soon disappear. And even the newspapers that still survive are much smaller than they once were—downsized with fewer people and less reporting.

There are many reasons for this collapse. For a start, Google eats up the advertisers the way whales swallow Old Testament prophets. But I also blame the newspapers themselves, who knew about the digital future more than 40 years ago, but still weren’t prepared when it arrived.

Check out this video—which laid out the future of journalism back in 1981. They correctly predicted the future, but still weren’t prepared when it arrived.

Now newspapers are in collapse. Just look at these numbers—they’re a rockier horror show than The Rocky Horror Show.

Source

That’s not just a decline—that’s a total collapse of an industry.

So my friend asks me, how would I save the newspaper business? My reply was evasive.

“Well, yes, I think it’s possible to solve this problem. But if you implemented my plan the end result won’t look anything like today’s newspapers.”

“But if it works—and I’m confident it will—it creates good-paying jobs and ensures high quality reporting. And we can make money too, lots of money.

“This requires some radical steps. When I’m done, we will be operating in an entirely different world from the Cleveland Plain Dealer or the Minnesota Star Tribune.”

He pressed for details, and I gave them. But, my dear readers, I always think of you, too.

So here’s my business plan for the “newspaper of the future.”

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THE NEWSPAPER OF THE FUTURE

BUSINESS OBJECTIVE

The plan outlined below will create one of the best news organizations in the world, and be profitable within 24-36 months.