[Miss Marple]

That's why they need to concentrate on the local neighborhood news. It is a lot harder to politicize a kids' volunteer project, a neighborhood block party, or high school sports.

You have to get them to withdraw from national and international news for the most part.

It is my contention that ALL papers can only survive if they go to the covering the stuff that isn't usually on the internet...and that is LOCAL stuff. And coupons.

Of course, I am looking at this from the point of view of establishing a successful business. I fear a great many newspeople would find this type of coverage unimportant and boring, and therefore will continue on their present course.

My theory rests on the one thing that will get people to buy papers: seeing their name and/or picture in it (or even more important, their child's). This is the only thing I can see that would get a person interested in buying a paper. All other news is found faster on the internet and cable news.

[mystery-ak]

The only reason I subscribe to my local paper is to read the obits...other than that I toss it.

[Freedom is eternally right]

It is my contention that ALL papers can only survive if they go to the covering the stuff that isn't usually on the internet...and that is LOCAL stuff. And coupons.

That may be true for larger papers, such as the ones that have targeted newspapers for suburbs but it isn't necessarily true for small town newspapers. Our local paper ran a subscription special, 6 months for $10. There is no way they can be making money. If every family in the three surround towns subscribed at the rate they offered, they would still operate at a loss. They did close their offices for a short period of time, and have recently started publishing again. As much as I dislike the NY Times, I would hate to see the loss of our local paper.

[Morgan in Denver]

Part of the problem we have in Denver is both newspapers buy stories from the NY Times syndicate to include in the paper. Then the local reporters will key off those for their coverage or comments.

I agree with you on local news but the paper cannot ignore national or international news either.

One successful model seems to be the Wall Street Journal.  They sell the paper, sell the on-line paper for a discounted price and have a free site for the general public.  

If I owned a newspaper I would do something similar.  I'd have expanded and more coverage than the paper provides, which I'd give for free to anyone who subscribes to the paper.  That would be in addition to the limited free website for people who don't subscribe.   I'd also sell the website to those people who don't want the paper on their doorstep but want the whole thing. 

Of course, that also means changing the biases they have now too.