My apologies to Bob Dylan, but the chapter 11 bankruptcy of one of our local papers, the StarTribune, has been a slow train coming. Clearly this is one of the worst dailies in the entire US. Mismanaged, cash-strapped and unbelievably biased, this newspaper has been on the edge of inevitability for 2 years. Yesterday they finally filed.
I am certain they will cut costs and restructure their debt before coming out of bankruptcy, but in the end I don’t think it will matter. The game has changed; day-old news printed on paper is a thing of the past. The world is steadily moving towards instant, on-demand.
Clearly reporting will continue…it needs to, but I think the only sustainable media for newspapers is online. Develop the website, draw in the visitors and charge advertisers for those pages.