

Newspapers That Aren't Dying  - sizzle
http://theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/06/newspapers-that-arent-dying/373492/

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ChuckMcM
When I did an information economics paper inside Google I pointed out that
understanding the value of the information in the context of its delivery
system was key (there was an ongoing discussion about ereaders at the time).
For many people (and as far as I could tell every single product manager
inside G at that time :-) the notion that information delivery on _anything_
other than a smartphone was both poorly conceived, and doomed to imminent
failure (ie as soon as the smartphone/app version came out). No amount of data
could break down that closely held belief.

I'm still convinced that at the right price point and feature set (which at
one time I had hoped Plastic Logic could provide), the notion of a cheap (but
reasonably large format and nearly indestructible) ereader could be the eco-
system for this kind of thing.

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gdilla
There's like two Japanese newspapers in NYC, printed weekly, and it's free.
They're usually found where japanese diaspora shop, eat and gather. Great
price, great distribution, great visibility.

~~~
chc
Incidentally, weekly+free is actually a really good approach from the
newspaper's perspective, not just for the readers. The weekly run keeps
production costs down, and revenue from purchases is generally pretty low
compared to the ad money, so for an operation like that it's easier just to
optimize for eyeballs.

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Eridrus
It doesn't actually seem like the Urdu Times is really "thriving".

It manages to employ one person, and keeps all the writers as freelancers.
This is one of the symptoms cited of the decline of traditional print media.

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patcon
Funny that they mention the Urdu Times as an example of a thriving non-digital
newspaper -- HN just had a post referring to how those who speak Urdu are
fiercely protective of their script and underserved digitally due to the
difficulty of rendering the typeface.

So keep in mind that that headlining success story is likely a misleading
represenntation, as it's a newspaper that is restricted from going digital.

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austenallred
In the end, one of the main reasons newspapers is dying in the United States
because of competition, which is something we can take for granted. There are
dozens of newspapers covering the same stories and reproducing the same AP
bylines every day, most of them for free online. Would I buy a printed out
copy of that the next day? Of course not. Why would I?

But If I spoke Urdu (a language that's very difficult to render on-screen), it
would probably be a different story. Where would you even go to get the news?
That's the interesting dichotemy of the news (and I say this as someone
working on a news startup); there's an almost-fundamental need held by
everyone to understand what is happening in the world, so why can't producing
that make money? Because news is a very, very crowded space. It's all about
supply/demand.

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petercooper
Along similar lines: [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/19/nyregion/an-unusual-
media-...](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/19/nyregion/an-unusual-media-start-
up-a-local-newspaper.html?_r=1)

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rm445
Very interesting, but does it generalise? People like to remain connected to
their local languages once they've emigrated; they have shared tastes in thing
such as food that help advertisiers to target the publications; and the shared
experiences of an ex-patriate community help to combat the lack of focus that
makes it hard for newspapers to compete with the Web.

Does that mean the only successful newspapers of the future will be for ex-pat
and immigrant communities? Or is it just that printing articles on paper only
makes sense in huge cities _and_ with a targeted demographic?

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ape4
I like it!

