L.A. Times editor to leave the paper File this one under God doing for the paper what they couldn't do for themselves. Also, he who has the gold makes the rules, meaning when Chicago speaks and LA fails to listen, LA will pay. Will this stop the circulation slide? I doubt it, because the problems within the staff remain. When some of the novelists masquerading as reporters are fired, then the paper might turn around.
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Newspapers are so 20th century. What can they do that can't be done better on the net?
Their advertising based model, mostly classifieds, is being destroyed by sites like craigslist.org. Free ads are hard to beat. Craigslist is also localized for many communities across the country. That's only one site. There are many others.
Information online is fresh and upto date. Or at least has the potential to be. Once the paper hits the doorstep it's already aged. Who wants to read about what they already knew yesterday?
Those that read papers are aging rapidly. As they die off, who will replace them as readers? I'm in my 40s and I don't know anybody my age or younger who reads any newspaper. Not a single person. They all use online sources to replace what newspapers once provided. Classifieds, movie reviews and showings, searching for an apartment/home, looking for a job, etc. This will all become easier and easier as we all become untethered from wire based computing. Wireless and mobile devices will mean the net is everywhere. All the time. 24/7. Easy to access for everybody. No need to drag around a stack of paper with black ink staining our hands.
Newspapers are history. Nothing will save them unless they adapt to the net environment. I have my doubts that any but a few small local papers will sucessfully do that. The bigs ones certainly won't. Like the dinosaurs, they see the comet hurtling towards them and don't know what it is.
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