Newspapers and ‘The Manhattan Project’

The still-Tribune owned LA Times has launched an ambitious project to plot its digital future. Here’s more from the NY Times (reg req’d). Right now the NY Times and Washington Post are the trail blazers but they still don’t go far enough.

Eventually some set of “best practices” will emerge and others can copy those strategies on the consumer side. On the advertiser side newspapers will need to undertake massive cooperation to be competitive online.

The industry will have to overcome its historical rivalries and Balkanization to provide a viable alternative to the reach and efficiencies offered by the portals and search engines.

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