One of the common themes in business is that the newspaper industry is dying. If you’re younger than 45 and have a newspaper subscription, you’re unique. Circulation for the major newspapers has been going done for years and it doesn’t look like it’s going to stop soon.
The newspaper industry does try to partner with those in new media, just like this deal with Yahoo. These deals are stop gap, though. Eventually, it’s going to be too late and newspapers will fill a niche area.
So, here are the five was I’d save the local newspaper industry:
1) Make it local. This seems silly, but newspapers need to focus on LOCAL news and issues. Period. You can include maybe a page of news outside of your area, but with the internet, tv and radio almost everyone gets up to date news. By the time the newspaper is delivered or purchased the non-local news is old. Yes, there will be exceptions, but focus on local news. This includes town, city, region and state news.
2) Include the readers. The newspaper should act as an invitation for your readers to jump online and visit your site. Visit is too soft of a word. They should participate in your site. Aggregate their opinions, views and news.
3) Do more. Newspapers need to become the local information hub for your area. Include information about tourist attractions for instance. Why shouldn’t the newspapers be the gateway to the local community?
4) Give it away. This is the most painful, but you need to give the paper away for free. People expect their information to be free now. Don’t fight it, but embrace it. Sell advertising based on where the paper is distributed. You can focus advertising just like Google based on the demographic profile of your readers.
5) Everything needs to be online. Why can’t I see the daily crossword puzzle online? Why can’t I see the Sunday newspaper ads online? Ugh. You publish a great product, but hide it online. Put it all online and make it easy to read.
Will the newspaper industry help itself? I don’t know, but if history shows anything someone will step up and make this work.
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