I ran across (courtesy of MediaPost) this post from Allan Mutter about the current state of newspapers. He says some newspapers skipping or considering skipping Monday print editions, when ad sales may be weak. He thinks it’s a bad idea and instead suggests a sports-themed paper that may attract new readers and advertisers:
In a major market like the city where my friend works, the population is fixated on the ups and downs of the professional and college sports teams that are active throughout the year. Sports are of particular interest for young men who typically are not newspaper readers but could be captured as a valuable and desirable a new audience by the following multimedia platform . . .
Turning the Monday paper from an ordinary broadsheet into a free-distribution tabloid, featuring not only the newspaper’s best staff-written sports coverage but also the cream of the user-generated content from the website.
Mutter also suggests Internet and mobile components as part of the strategy. It’s a terrific, creative idea.
The economic crisis creates opportunities to break from the inertia of the past, such as what Mutter is arguing for — and not just for newspapers. I hope that newspapers try what Mutter is suggesting and that other, equally creative “it’s so crazy it just might work” ideas make their way into the open.
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This NY Times piece illustrates the challenges newspapers have monetizing their display ad inventory. The irony is that the more traffic they have the more they have the rely on ad networks, which depress ad prices.
Screenwerk 