4 Comments

1. Joseph "Giuseppe" Zuccaro 11/07/2008, 5:54 pm Reply

   Newspapers are on life support. Having worked at a major newspaper chain, I saw firsthand the inability to adapt to the new world of the Internet. Most of these people are like cavalry officers charging against tanks. The old “technology” just can’t compete.
2. Michael Josefowicz 11/08/2008, 8:45 am Reply

   What’s dead is the business model of newspapers. Until around the 1820′s in the US, newspapers were actually viewspapers. They were the primary content for a diverse population learning how to make sense of a rapidly changing world.

   Today, we have a diverse population that has to make sense of a rapidly changing world.

   It’s at least possible that if the editors and reporters were focused on helping their audiences learn instead of aggregating them for advertisers, they could create some real value.

   Just one: suppose newspaper staffs were focused on making social studies, economics and history accessible to high school kids (and their parents?). You would think that could beat textbooks by a mile.

   Every school system is going to have to do more with less. It’s a stable replenishing market. Meanwhile, lots of money is being wasted on textbooks. Why not replace textbooks with a weekly newspaper that puts the weeks events in a historical, economic and political context. And sell that to the school systems.

   Maybe then we’ll have to talk about the end of textbooks. But having seen how broken they are, that’s ok with me.
3. Rick Littrell 11/08/2008, 2:07 pm Reply

   Great comments.

   It all goes back to creating valuable content and that being the most important issue. What it gets distributed on is a completely separate discussion. Making it portable and searchable, with notations, is the next huddle that must be crossed by ANY long term solution.

   I think that you may have something with the schools, Michael. And, if the teachers could include their notes/presentions, with the content from the publisher (personalizing and localizing the info), that would be something to behold. Why can’t that be done? Inquiring minds want to know.

   More things to think about.
4. Michael Josefowicz 11/08/2008, 6:09 pm Reply

   Rick-

   Based on what I’ve seen in most schools, teachers don’t have time to comment. The sad truth is that they rely on textbooks for the curriculum. Most of them spend most of their time focusing on the kids. (as it should be, IMHO)

   Now if the NEWspaper had exam questions, it scales, much faster than most people would think.

   Given that the kernel of value in newspapers is supposed to be experts who can connect the dots, why not get them to focus on connecting the dots between today’s events and yesterday’s and the day’s gone by…

   The group needed is a group of educators to lay out the curriculum + and do the quizzes + a group of writers/journalists to choose and write about news of the week.

   It’s sort of My Weekly Reader on steroids with a web component..for follow up and writing.

   Plus sell ads to non profits, health, and government organizations. Given the new tech from Screen, you can print a NEWspaper in quantities of 200 to 400. Just right for the junior class at XYZ High School.

   The newspaper wins. The kids win. The texbook companies lose.