Already in the last year, Zell had cut the LAT’s budget by 10 Million Dollars, while the number of editors has been going down since the year 2000 from 1200 to 900. Also the circulation decreased from 1,1 Million to 800.000 copies.

Take The Los Angeles Times for example- according to an article I recently read in Süddeutsche Zeitung, the LA Times is going through a radical change. There are plans of the LAT’s new owner, Sam Zell, to shrink the paper by a couple of dozen pages, there is talk about 82 pages per week. This of course means much shorter articles and with that also less in-depth coverage.

Already in the last year, Zell had cut the LAT’s budget by 10 Billion Dollars, while the number of editors has been going down since the year 2000 from 1200 to 900. Also the circulation decreased from 1,1 Million to 800.000 copies.

These may be investor-related issues, but then again they are linked to the constantly decreasing newspaper sales.

I think large Newspapers with a large editorial staff are an integral part of any democratic society. Who else could provide us with this huge bunch of information every single day? Granted, we still need to use our own head to think, compare and measure the news we are being presented every day.

I doubt nichepapers could jump in here. I also would argue that magazine business and newspaper business are very different fields to work/publish in. First up a newspaper usually comes daily (or in some cases weekly), while most magazines have a bigger release period (I know there are exceptions).

Also newspapers usually take a broader look in their topics compared to magazines. The more niche you write, the more you should look at a magazine format. Niche-Magazines are plenty there already, they grow and die, but I doubt there will ever be thus many niche-newspapers.

The idea of a customizable newspaper is nice, especially the idea of print on demand and selecting different information sources. However one reason to stick with a certain newspaper is its editorial quality that it brings with every issue, every day.

I think editorial and curational efforts such as done by newspapers coud be getting even more important.

Anyway, nichepapers are an interesting concept. If they ever do become an option, I hope they’ll be held to the same accountability standards as newspapers are today. I’ve been working with my team on the http://www.buysafemdia.com site, and I’ve realized the need for media auditing everywhere (at least from a marketer’s perspective). You should check it out. Good post, Piers.