In today's NYTimes, David Carr offers four solutions to the "Newspaper Meltdown." As Carr, himself suggests one, two and three are in the realm of fantasy.
Number four makes good sense.
1. No more free content.
2. No more free ride to aggregators.
3. No more commoditized ads.
4. Throw out the Newspaper Preservation Act. Regulatory reform will allow the industry to consolidate to an economically feasible model and preserve newsgathering.
Later in the article he cites, "Philip Meyer, who wrote “The Vanishing Newspaper,” (who) concurs: “Technology has destroyed the monopolies that these laws were designed to regulate.”
It's not the fault of short sighted newspaper people. It's not that Print is Dead. It's not even the fault of the people who borrowed gezillions of funny money without a plan in place to pay it back.
The present situation is the result of technology that has destroyed monopolies.
Once competition enters the game, all the rules change. As newspapers learn to play nicely with the internet, they will regain an important, profitable, but no longer monopoly position. When the laws change to recognize the new situation, it will be alot easier to get from here to there.
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