by Paul Schingle

Created on: December 11, 2008

The ironic headline just the other day in the Chicago Tribune read, "Tribune Corp. files for bankruptcy." The article went on to say that the Chicago Tribune and its smaller papers including "Hoy" (The Spanish language paper, here) and "Redeye" (sort of the Chicago Tribune-lite) will continue publication, the super station WGN will remain in operation and the corporation continues to own the Chicago Cubs. Is the internet a threat to newspapers? You bet they are. Is it doom and gloom for the daily print paper? Not if they're smart about it.

I wasn't around at the advent of telelvision, but I imagine that televised news, especially when it was a new thing, cut into the reading of daily newspapers-at least a little bit. I openly admit that I get a lot of my news from the internet. It's quick. It's handy. And, it's always at your fingertiops. But, nothing makes my morning like opening up the daily-something I can put my hands on, sink my teeth into, get some real depth on a particular story. I can't be the only one who feels that way. The internet is fine, but it isn't the same as getting your hands on a print daily.

So, how does the print newspaper compete? I'm not a business man and can't pretend to have all the answers, but I do have a couple ideas. First off, how does a newspaper make money? It isn't from that little fifty cents they charge when you pick it up at the store, or even from the thirty bucks for three months subscription you pay. No, newspapers make their money from selling advertising. Anyone who has been reading the same daily over the last ten or more years has to have noticed that the number of news stories have gone down, while the number of advertisements have increased. This isn't an accident. In this competetive world of news delivery, the papers have to remain solvent. They do so by selling advertising.

So, how does a newspaper increase advertising revenues without compromising the quality of the product? Here's an idea. They can actually lower the cost of purchasing the paper-especially by subscription. This may seem counterintuitive to making money, but hear me out. Let's say "Joe's Market" wants to take out a full page ad in the local daily. If the daily can honestly say that the number of subscribers has increased by 25% over the last six months, the paper can rightly charge Joe's more for the same advertisement. The folks at Joe's Market don't care how the daily is getting the paper out to more people. They don't care if the paper is taking a loss on delivery to subscribers. They just know that more people will be seeing their ads in the daily paper and should be willing to pay more for the advertisement.

Yes, newspapers are probably going to have to cut back on staff and on other costs. They have to shift paradigms to compete with an ever-increasing number of news outlets-most notably, the internet. Is the internet a threat? No doubt. But, that doesn't mean that the daily print newspaper has to roll over and play dead. They just have to change with the times and make themselves more competetive. In the end, this should be good news for consumers of the news.

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