It's not the news I want to lose - its the "paper"

There is a well argued piece by James Surowiecki in the New Yorker that makes the point that today we get it all - all the news for free. But at some point content will have to be paid for.

The peculiar fact about the current crisis is that even as big papers have become less profitable they’ve arguably become more popular. The blogosphere, much of which piggybacks on traditional journalism’s content, has magnified the reach of newspapers, and although papers now face far more scrutiny, this is a kind of backhanded compliment to their continued relevance. Usually, when an industry runs into the kind of trouble that Levitt was talking about, it’s because people are abandoning its products.

But people don’t use the Times less than they did a decade ago. They use it more.

The difference is that today they don’t have to pay for it. The real problem for newspapers, in other words, isn’t the Internet; it’s us. We want access to everything, we want it now, and we want it for free. That’s a consumer’s dream, but eventually it’s going to collide with reality: if newspapers’ profits vanish, so will their product.

I will pay. I did pay for the walled Times because I love the editorial writers. I will not pay for the paper because 95% of it I don't want.

I do pay for songs on iTunes. I don't by CD's because I don't want 95% of what is on them.

I hardly ever watch TV because 99% of what is there I don't want. I do pay to rent DVD's and movies form iTunes because I then get what I want.

So from a sample of 1, here is a premise.

Most of us will pay for content that we want. But we want it "Our Way" - no padding and online.

At some point, as local papers die, the NYT will have a huge readership - I read it every morning here on PEI. But it is the paper that kills the margins. I don't want the paper - I want Tom Friedman!

As local papers die - there will be a gap. NPR and the local radio stations can fill that. But they have to be smart about how they use the web to do that.

Commercial Local TV will die. There is a huge opportunity for PBS Stations to fill the gap. They too have to be decisive - the web is their main platform now for the classic PBS Content. So I keep coming back to the PBS inventory. Thousand of timeless shows - all on DVD - where I have to send money and get a thing and wait weeks.

All the rules for the new web reality are known now.  What we are waiting for is leadership.

NPR, PBS, CPB and a few pathfinder stations have to get together and plan to be the winner. They have the content - all they need is to act.

They can do more.

What would a real network be like? How would using a real network also enahnce Public Media's margins in this tough time. More later this week on that.