Future of the newspaper?

The infrastructure of a business model is evaluated one niche market, one customer segment at a time. It is hard work. It takes quantifiable research. It takes experience to know when to proceed with the analysis and when to cut bait.

But the first requirement is objectivity.

This may be a little tough for passionate, dedicated intelligent journalists to take, but if a productive dialog on business models is desired journalists have to get past being enamored with 'What you do', and move on to being completely focused on 'How you do it.' Journalists need to take the emotional turn from being captivated with investigative journalism, and move to being absolutely dedicated to how to hasten news sites' move to a healthy balance sheet.

The second requirement is the ability to function through disruption.

Simply put, the newspaper industry was disrupted; they were unprepared and continue to reel from the changes. Disruptive technologies upset markets. Innovative marketing can shock an industry and demand reactions over time.

Implementing new business models in old established industries is unsettling and troublesome.

So the real question on the future of journalism is not the desire for change, but the ability to embrace change. That downward spiral is a trend that will continue; that is not a hockey stick in the making!

The building blocks of income generation for news sites are no different than other businesses: consistent growing revenue base, competitive advantages, happy customers who see results and repeat business. Like any other business, news sites need to have consistent income to support their efforts; they need to offer what businesses and consumers want to buy.

"Deliver new ways for advertisers to communicate directly with qualified prospects helping advertisers close business quickly while providing consumers access to business they want to find" is a discussion point, albeit disruptive, but a discussion point.

Once journalists are ready to be objective and unsettle their own world, then they will be ready to proceed toward a healthy balance sheet.