With a new Russian owner, London’s evening daily publication has decided to fight the free sheets that have ravaged its market share by dropping its price to zero.

Image credit: Getty Images, Michael Bodge/Flickr
Writing in the Guardian, journalist Simon Jenkins argues that publishers should learn from the lessons made by the music business rather than return to paywall media. He says that he viewed the evolution of the newspaper when he went to the Glastonbury music festival recently, and witnessed how people will still pay for the live experience:
The key must be to learn the lesson of the most tightly competitive medium of all: popular music. It has cast off its enslavement to recording studios and recast itself, almost in Victorian mode, as a mass movement for live [...]

Only a few days after our discussion about the negative effect that might be caused if the newspaper industry decides to return to paywall media, PSFK notices a number of articles that point to continued confusion about what the industry should do in the new (and free) media economy.

We live in the age of omnipresent reporting.  From live-blogging to citizen journalism, it’s almost impossible for most events to slip through the cracks. The story of New York Times reporter David Rohde is one of the few examples of successfully keeping news from spreading and with good intentions.
Just over a week ago, David Rohde escaped from the Taliban after being their hostage for seven months.  It came as a surprise to the public, but soon the amazing story of media cooperation surfaced.  When Rohde was captured along with another local reporter and a driver, The New York Times feared [...]

People are sharing bit.ly briefened links to video taken and uploaded minutes before and other protesters in Tehran hold their phones up high to record and share their activity with Iran and the outside world.
The developments in the use of the web to share, access, edit and discuss information about the crisis in Iran show just how modern news organizations are failing to deliver news in the way the public want to seek it.
Iranians and observers abroad are using right this minute Twitter, blogs, Flickr and YouTube to share information about what is happening within Iran at a speed that [...]

The satirical Daily Show has a feature on the New York Times and the “aged news” it produces. Daily Show regular Jason Jones visits the news room and interviews “last of a dying breed” executive editor Bill Keller. At one point he picks up a paper and waves it at a NY Times Comms person and says: “You know who would like this? My grandmother.”

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Online Journalism Blog’s Paul Bradshaw has written a primer on how the internet has irrevocably changed the way news does business, and why any newspaper that hopes to survive needs to understand—and take advantage of—the new economics of journalism.
Among all of the 12 factors Bradshaw enumerates (ranging from the atomisation of news content to the rise of PR firms), the common theme is the diminishing power of print media in the face of emergent online entities. Where a newspaper once held a monopoly over classified ads, now stands Craigslist; where a newspaper once dominated arts criticism, now users turn to [...]

A recent New York Times article reports on a number of start ups that are geotagging news stories in communities normally underrepresented in major papers.  EveryBlock, Outside.in (co-founded by PSFK Conference speaker John Geraci), PlaceBlogger and Patch are each bringing together various news sources to compile a site dedicated to your community or even specific city block.  Many of the sites draw on publicly available information like crime reports or restraurant health code violations and brings you the most up-to-date information in one place.
Chicago-based EveryBlock has quickly expanded to 11 major cities around the US and brings together blog posts [...]

Last Friday the Courier-Journal turned to craft to increase readership. The Kentucky paper published a front page that had been redrawn by the artist Serkan Özkaya with a team of students from the University of Louisiana.
Art on Deadline: Turkish artist transforms Courier-Journal’s front page
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The paper carries a piece that gives some insight into the reasons why the paper (and artist) did this:
Why does he do this? Why did we let him?
Özkaya said his art is intended to make [...]

As newspapers continue to swoon in the face of economic troubles, many are looking to foundation-based journalism to assume the task of preserving the hallowed institution of long form investigative reporting. And while this model faces challenges of its own, namely proving its objectivity to potential supporters before receiving funding, it offers a compelling opportunity to serve the public by employing journalists and allowing them to pursue the stories that need to be told.
With that in mind, we were excited to see the Huffington Post leveraging its online presence and credibility to help seed a $1.75 million venture for journalists. [...]

While many entrenched in the media industry are trying to find ways to prop up the traditional model of print – micropayments, subscription models, media cartels – in the face of economic turmoil, some thinkers – Steven Berlin Johnson and Clay Shirky among them – believe that this attempt at life support is only delaying their inevitable demise or perhaps, reorder. Even as the newspapers continue to sound the rallying cry of, “You’ll miss us when we’re gone,” Johnson and Shirky seem to be of the mindset that despite the rocky times we’re sure to face, new models will develop [...]

The Business Insider points us to a list they suggest predicts the next 9 newspapers that are going to fold. The top 10 list published by Real Clear Politics also includes the Rocky Mountain Review which folded last week.

New York Daily News – Circulation: 632,595 (10% Decline Since 2007)
Los Angeles Times– Circulation: 739,147 (4% decrease since 2007)
St. Paul Pioneer Press– Circulation: 184,973 (3% decrease since 2007)
Chicago Sun-Times – Circulation: 313,176 (.2% increase since 2007)
Detroit News – Circulation: 178,280 (5% decrease since 2007)
San Francisco Chronicle – Circulation: 339,430 (8% decrease since 2007)
Miami Herald– Circulation: 210,884 (12% decrease since 2007)
Philadelphia Daily News [...]

Today Denver joins the ever-increasing list of cities with only one newspaper: the Rocky Mountain News has published its last issue. But Editor John Temple hopes its readers will take pride in the final edition and its 52-page wraparound section, noting “This is our last shot at this. This morning (someone) said it’s like playing music at your own funeral. It’s an opportunity to make really sweet sounds or blow it. I’d like to go out really proud.” The paper’s very existence was in limbo for the past three months and operated at a $16 million loss. The only potential [...]

Social media expert Chris Brogan shares an interesting observation – he noticed that USA Today looks kind of like an offline version of a micro-blog. He marveled at the paper’s ability to scale down to essential, quick data points, and says he’s been motivated to possibly re-design his site based on USA Today’s example. It may seem odd getting new ideas from such an “archaic” thing such as a newspaper, but it goes to show – you never know where inspiration will strike.
Brogan explains:
If you squint, and remove your “purist” filter, USAToday looks like a microblog. The paper has little [...]