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This is off on a tangent from the piece about Google and Rupert, but it's worth noting that in the general discussion of the demise of the traditional print newspaper business, few folks point out that the small community papers are in a better spot. The real issue is that the national and world news has become a commodity that you can get from nearly anywhere. At the same time, the quality of the reporting has declined. Folks like Politico may represent the future of national reporting -- a leaner group of highly talented journalists getting interesting stories out. But why pay to read about some major national news story in paper XXX when you have 1,000 other news sources to read essentially the same content? Conversely, take a look at small community papers. For example, my hometown paper is online at http://bristolri.com/. These guys are doing just fine (I know the publisher). You can't get their content anywhere else. And you know what? Average everyday people want to read local stories about the new school superintendent, the police report, the controversy over a local land development deal, the letters to the editor from their neighbors, etc. They buy the paper. Local advertisers still advertise. The paper is doing fine, and he's not alone -- lots of small papers are doing OK because their content has not been commoditized. As for Rupert Murdoch, I think he's going in the wrong direction. If I were him, I'd worry less about distribution rights on my essentially worthless commodity national news content, and I would instead set my target on the big ratings agencies. The ratings agencies played a huge role in the credit crisis -- they basically gave bonds a gold star that were, in reality, crap. They should be vulnerable with some sort of new model. There are few companies positioned as well to destroy Moody's as News Corp / WSJ / Dow Jones with their depth of financial industry content / resources / etc. I don't have any idea of exactly what a rating agency 2.0 would look like, but it would seem like a much more productive and valuable place for Rupert to put his focus. |