“It may be obvious that printing presses don’t make much sense with the Internet, and most websites have moved to ad networks for the obvious reasons; in fact, though, nearly all of the content in most newspapers is not just unnecessary but in fact actively harmful to building a sustainable future for local news.”
I’ve linked to technology analyst Ben Thompson‘s work before and I’m doing it again because he once again has written a brilliant dissection of what’s happening in the media world.
In this case, he explains why the local news business has collapsed and how it can be reinvented.
He points out that the key to a successful local news business moving forward will be not only to separate it from the traditional idea of a newspaper, but also to hyper-focus it on local news only and build it on a subscription model as opposed to advertising.