Behind The Lens

AdvertisingAge has a pretty interesting article on the slow death of newspapers. Several papers were mentioned, including the paper I contribute to, The Lakewood Observer:

There’s already a great deal of innovating under way. Just last week, the eight biggest newspapers in Ohio began sharing articles with each other. The New York Times website introduced yet another ad unit to increase its digital revenue further. The young Lakewood (Ohio) Observer “newspaper” is publishing online every day — but going to print, where its ad revenue resides, only every two weeks. The Wall Street Journal is introducing a glossy magazine inside its newsprint pages. And one of the new-era owners, Brian Tierney in Philadelphia, has rooted out new business opportunities, such as selling sponsorship of the Inquirer’s TV-guide booklet to cable giant Comcast.

Personally, I think citizen-driven, volunteer media like the Lakewood Observer are the future of media. Papers and websites like the LO are turning the traditional media model on its head; the MSM just doesn’t know it yet.

This process is not reversible, said Lauren Rich Fine, a former Merrill Lynch newspaper analyst now serving as a practitioner in residence at Kent State University’s College of Communication and Information. “I wouldn’t count on this industry becoming that profitable again,” she said. “Anybody who thinks it’s going back to the way it was is insane.”

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