Longtime readers of this blog may remember my dismay at Indianapolis Star writers balking at the idea of sometimes writing ad copy as a way to stymie the bleeding in the newspaper business. And while that particular initiative proved not to be one with any staying power, the Indy Star of late has been seen in the middle-market newspaper industry as an example of an organization that’s getting it right. (My esteemed colleagues at NUVO would probably disagree on ideological terms… but that’s another story.)
Anyway, here’s a link to a very interesting piece from Ad Age that surveys the problems newspapers are facing. The most prescient quote comes right in the first paragraph. In simple words, it plainly sums up the way out and it’s something that folks who operate media businesses should think about having tattooed on the back of their eyelids:
…traditional media in general must learn to shrink but newspapers in particular are a special case.
Amen to that … says the guy with the fantasy of having his own mom-and-pop media property.