How to reinvent journalism?

This story from American Journalism Review examines several attempts to reinvent journalism, or at least tweak newsgathering operations to work more sensibly and smoothly with new media.

Most of the papers profiled are large, however, so I'm wondering what smaller papers can glean from the selected experiments.

What's the right answer here? Is there a right answer?

http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4402

 

Here is the situation. People, in particularly young people, aren't buying newspapers. They get their information either on line or by TV.
By in large, people don't want to spend an hour reading an in-depth piece, no matter how well it is written.
We're a go-go-go society. People want information fast and accurate.
This has been talked about a lot on these threads. I say within 20 years, some of the "big" newspapers are going to shut down. Smaller papers will survive if they keep hammering the "local news" theme.
I'm afraid that it might be too late to tweak what's happening.

 

I've been told countless times in countless ways by countless people while eating Count Chocula that going hyperlocal is going to save us. But circulation numbers continue their slow descent. If local extreme is our salvation, shouldn't it have borne fruit by now?

 

It would have by now. The Count Chocula threw off the business model.

 

So what happens in 25-30 years, or less, when this younger online audience that is ignoring or being weaned from the newspaper today becomes the "older crowd" of consumers?

The old folks will be dead. Today's younger online audience will be the old folks who don't read a newspaper, because when they were younger the newspaper managers gave up on them and went hyper-online and hyper-local.

There will be no "settled adults" then seeking a "deep local news commitment."

And newspapers will be dead.

 

Except the new younger generation will gravitate towards old media just to piss off their fogey-ass internet-loving parents.

 

That's what I get for not going to my reliable dealers ...

 

So there's hope!

Yay!

I'll only be on Social Security, if there's any to be had, and pushing 70.

"I remember when newspapers were 21 inches deep and could be folded into a wad of paper thick enough to beat the hell out of someone."

"Shut up, old man, and type in that elementary school soccer recap."

 

The idea, i think, is that as us youngins get older, we're going to actually put down roots in a community and be more interested in the deep local stuff the geezers are into now.
At least that's the postulating I've heard.
No doubt making sure your online product is top of the line is the way to go, though.

 

Yeah, that's always been the theory. We'll see. But even if they are, will they turn to us? Or BLOGS?

 

After 20 years or more of these current generations being pushed and prodded to go online so they can "navigate" Atlanta or whatever other little burb they live in, they suddenly will take up roots and be interested in what is in the paper?

Maybe so.

Is the 90s "dot com" generation settling down and picking up the FlatDeadTree News to find out what is happening? No. They're still going online and raising their kids to go online.

I hope it works. I hope Julia Wallace's plan at the AJC works and newspaper managers find a way to balance the presentation while making money from the Internet.

But on the surface, getting a generation of people growing up online to switch to print when they're 45 or 50 doesn't seem doable.

 

Julia is being proactive but its late in the game. Young people don't read the paper. I have purposely sat in front of an Atlanta convenience store and counted the number of people who left with a newspaper. I've done it on weekends and I've done it on weekdays. The numbers are awful. Even worse, those who purchased a paper were by my guess, 35 and over.
It's time to wake up and smell the coffee. This will not end well.