“The notion that the enormous cost of real news-gathering might be supported by the ad load of display advertising down the side of the page, or by the revenue share from having a Google search box in the corner of the page, or even by a 15-second teaser from Geico prior to a news clip, is idiotic on its face.”
The notion that newspapers are still spending money on multi-million dollar presses and bloated newsrooms is what's really idiotic.
By bloated I mean local newspapers covering national news. When small papers have newsrooms with 60 reporters, and 40% of those reporters cover national news--that's a problem.
To see evidence of this go look at your local paper. Mine writes about (not syndicates...writes) national news all of the time.
Small to medium sized papers shouldn't be doing this anymore. They should be focusing on their local communities and dominating that market.
The notion that newspapers are still spending money on multi-million dollar presses and bloated newsrooms is what's really idiotic.