I still want my paper and I want all of it, I hate the car section on Friday or whenever it is now, but I know the car ads help keep the paper running. Maybe more local news? I remember when we had 2 daily papers, the Press Herald and the Evening Express. The evening paper had more local people type news. I think this is a great idea about how to save the paper. Mr. Ellis, why don't you have this as the front page story tomorrow? Put the challenge out there on the front page and let people write in or email advice. Myabe someone can strighten out the powers that be on this one! Come on, we still want a paper, maybe we should make Mr. Ellis the editor? Would that help? Free bacon with every newspaper? I'm thinking, I will get back to you...

How about a Press Herald Kindle-type device framed around a subscriber model a la cell phones? A new edition pumped into your e-book every day. The device should quickly pay for itself in saved printing/delivery costs and you could even offer to upgrade the device for free at the end of a two-year subscription. Advertisers would drool at the opportunity to deliver ads directly to a handheld...

I agree - um - 'cept for the bacon bit.

I personally yearn for RSS-driven sections of the paper, so, exactly as said above, I can keep up to date on the sections that interest me and not get lost in what doesn't. And it may be a bit tough to figure out how to monetize that RSS traffic, but at least the paper would be keeping its scope of influence broad, rather than getting increasingly lost in the noise of more and more media sources.

Print vs. online is that "long tail" thing -- the print needs to be somewhat vanilla to appeal to a broad audience, where as online it's just as easy to have mint, pistachio, grapenuts, cookies and cream, raspberry coconut... and specificity allows for much better advertising.

Is it possible to count how many times we've looked at the paper and seen dozens of print ads that really had nothing to do with the content that they're next to, or the person who's reading them? The print ad approach is still very hierarchical (front page is better, back page bad) rather than connecting with the minds of the consumer reading them (ignoring all of that scary orwellian stuff for a moment).

I love A.W.'s comments but I wonder if newspapers, on an organizational level, are flexible and daring enough to make the changes that they need to to adapt to the changing world. But for the sake of all of us, I hope they do.

FG

I think that the unfortunate reality is that in many contexts print advertising has never been terribly effective and the new online model - utilizing banner ads - has only served to reinforce people's long-held sneaking suspition that no one was reading their advertising to begin with. Go ahead - sell me a banner ad and I'll watch the anemic click through rate, and listen as the ad reps tell me that some fraction of one percent of total views is "Actually really good!" Maybe no one was ever really reading and acting on my print ads to begin with. We have established that practically speaking no one is clicking on my ads online - so now, why bother with either?

The sad reality will be that the line between advertising and journalism will become hopelessly obscured - far more than it is already. Prepare for the day hard hitting stories on fetid restaurant conditions include a residual paying-link to a better restaurant located conveniently nearby...that's what's coming.

You need to be the compelling daily read for the community. Give them something interesting and well written. It also has to be a shared experience which goes against all those ideas of personalization. What makes a paper popular is when we all can read the same thing and talk about it. You need interesting and quality stories with good writers and editors. Nothing drives away readers more than boring and poorly written or edited text. As an example,knowing when to use the word "less" versus "fewer" as in this cases where one fewer "less" and one more "fewer" would be better; "With less people buying papers and even fewer ads,".
When all else fails, remember that the cold weather is coming and Mainers still need some paper to light the fires in their stoves and fireplaces, so there will always be some seasonal demand out there.

Thanks for the shout, Justin - great discussion developing here.

I still think that customizing content - to some extent, maybe not a "personalized" edition for each and every subscriber - has got to be the way to go. If you look at the print media that are still thriving these days - niche magazines, hyperlocal weeklies, or alternative weeklies - that's essentially what they're doing: they're segmenting the market and targeting a particular niche.

I'm hoping to get other guest blog posts from local writers and reporters on GrowSmart Maine's "Charting Maine's Future" blog, where I started this discussion:
http://www.growsmartmaine.org/blog

Commenters - give me a shout if you're interested in joining in with ideas of your own.

Along the lines of customizing content....how about some ads for people that are actually reading the news online? Last week I was targeted with an ad from Hannaford (5 dollar coupon) on another website...and I printed it and have used it four times already! I don't think I have ever even clicked an online ad before that. If it is something we can actually use (food savings for example) we'll click,

The sales and marketing departments need new ways of thinking too.

The paper must be profitable so we can get the strong and compelling writing we all crave.

A solid first step would be to start publishing full text feeds. Start putting ads in your RSS if you need to.

Your readers who are subscribing to your feeds are some of your most loyal fans. After all, they have committed to at least seeing your content as it comes in. Think of them as you would your paper subscribers, except that they are paying you with their attention. Attention these days is just as valuable, if not more so, than the buck fifty you are paid for a dead tree that you can't track.

Idea:
To save printing costs, eliminate the Monday-Saturday print editions, but keep the web edition online.

Consolidate Monday-Saturday reporting into one massive Sunday paper, delivered to subscribers.

You'd be keeping up the reporting side of things by keeping the online presence, and advertisers would still have eyeballs. You're just losing the delivery model to readers, or making them adjust to a weekly deluxe edition instead of daily.