1. February 10, 2009, 12:15 am Virtually every newspaper in America has gone through waves of staff layoffs and budget cuts as advertisers and subscribers have marched out the door, driven by the move to the Web and, more recently, the economic crisis. In some cities, midsized metropolitan papers may not survive to year’s end. The owners of the Rocky Mountain News and The Seattle Post-Intelligencer have warned that those papers could shut down if they can’t find buyers soon. The Star Tribune of Minneapolis recently filed for bankruptcy. The Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News will soon stop home delivery four days of the week to cut operating costs. Gannett, which owns 85 daily newspapers in this country, recently said it would require most of its 31,000 employees to take a week of unpaid leave. What survival strategies should these dailies adopt? If some papers don’t survive, how will readers get news about the local school board or county executive? Battle Plan for Newspapers

2. Read your article and underline and annotate it as you read. Summarize your author’s argument. Evaluate their argument. Do you agree or disagree with their plan of action/opinion? Battle Plan for Newspapers

3. People want local content – can only get from local news gathering organizations. Pay for online content? –What price do you charge? –Micropayment ($0.05 a story?) is flawed – not as profitable –Premium content (The Times) a flop –Pay more for printed news ($2 a day? with ¼ the readers)? –Same info free elsewhere Niche markets will thrive? (Alternative weeklies, ethnic publications) Combine local TV/papers into one site? Bloggers? –Sloppy? Are they trustworthy? –People want “good” information – Can bloggers provide? Philanthropic model? propublica.org, minnpost.compropublica.orgminnpost.com Battle Plan for Newspapers Summation