Can newspapers reverse their decline? - baltimoresun.com

This advice seems patently obvious to me. You have new hybrid creations like the Tribune's Daywatch e-newsletter or Denver's Yourhub or Greensboro's efforts that are tapping interest in hyperlocal news and events. You have bloggers providing interesting commentary, analysis, and generally editiorializing. And bloggers, unlike many newspapers, don't make it hard for their readers to talk back to them. What is left that would interest people? Gee, good, hard-hitting news reporting of stories from wherever they are breaking. Investigative reporting that takes time, teams, and talent to pursue. I'd pay for that and so would lots of people. Newspapers should get back to basics: news but forget the paper part. Get the news out there and let the readers pick what format they will read it in. I think a syndicate like AP but serving readers is the eventual direction news will go. Remember the Chris Albritton, reporter who financed his reporting on the war from contributions, supplying his donors with news from the front? Can newspapers reverse their decline? - baltimoresun.com : "Instead, newspapers should be challenging their readers by providing difficult-to-obtain firsthand reports from around the world that are unavailable anywhere else. They should combine that reporting with bracing, counterintuitive commentary that would provoke thought and discussion in the civic arena." Related item: Influence of blogs grows from Scott Anderson's blog.