Is internet killing the print news business or is it merely exposing the problem with the newspaper business model?
The newspaper subsidizes news with advertising from classifieds and special interest pages such as autos, real estate and enrertainment where it is much easier to sell advertisign. Now that the classifieds are moving to craigslist and vertical niche sites cater to autos, real estate etc., there is no way newspapers can justify the old production and distribution costs. Also blogs and social media are commoditizing news production and distribution. So now that the internet is exposing the problems with the old business model, news media must adapt and find a new workable business model.
Many people including Marc Andereesen suggest the news should go exclusively online. But as Chris Dixon points out, news is lousy for online advertising (even for google). No wonder news media wants to charge for news, which has the small issue of convincing people to pay for news which few are used to right now.
That is the hard conundrum faced by the news media.
Everyone takes quality news for granted and it is not easy create it on the cheap. Someone has to pay for it. Will it be the readers or the advertisers?