Local News Works When Cost Structure Isn't Screwed Up

Newspaper revenue really started to collapse well over a decade ago, and we've been discussing what to do about it for almost as long.

Yahoo and AOL are already has-beens. They operate under the old rules. They control content and distribution and think they can own customers, relationships, and attention. They create destinations and have the hubris to think customers should come to them. They spend a huge portion of their revenue on marketing to get those people there and work h... See more

But it’s also because newspapers were an oligopoly, and they lose that oligopoly online. Newspapers are, yes, a content business, but they were also a light manufacturing business, and it was the replacement of light manufacturing and trucking with bits that removed the barrier to entry and unbundled their attention.