Revamped Final: Possible Evolution of Newspapers

5) Will newspapers survive and how will they evolve?
Jeffrey Cole, director of the USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future. He said: “Traditionally 70 percent of a big-city newspaper has been advertising. There will never come a day that 70 percent of thenewyorktimes.com will be advertising. But while their revenues from advertising may be smaller, they also — if you look at a newspaper’s budget, only 30 percent of it goes to editorial, goes to writers and editors. Seventy percent of it goes to printing and distribution, and those costs almost disappear in a digital world.”
When drastic cuts are required, it seems crazy to focus them on the minority portion of one’s business. Consider taking a chunk out of the printing and distribution side of their expenses by getting out of print, in whole or in part. There are many downsides and risks to that move, of course, but as one attendee at the API summit said, “We have nothing to lose.”
http://www.niemanlab.org/2008/11/the-newspaper-summit-lots-of-lines-all-going-the-wrong-way/

The Islands of Quality Strategy:
 Business people will pay a lot for high quality information and, even more, for great analysis That's why Rupert Murdoch went for the Wall Street Journal and its global potential and organizations like Oxford Analytica and RAND will succeed.

Who and what are these islands of quality knowledge?

 Gatekeepers at boutique groups like Analytica and the Economist will have outsized influence as Lippman predicted.
 Oxford Analytica-- which has Oxford dons do high-powered analysis of international economics and politics, including a Global Stress Points matrix designed by the former head of MI-6...

 For People Who Need Full information rapidly.

What makes an island of quality?
Elements? Emerging?
Who is their audience?
Business , Investment, Political, Advertising, Government and Academic Communities at a minimum. Willing to pay top dollar for info

Lippman’s predictions coming true as potential lifeboat the industry
Further divergence between masses and intelligensia

What’s worth paying for in New Journalism:
Not just regular info given, but expert analysis of superstar analysts like Tom Freidman, Broeder…Context
Will Pay for Reliability and Verification of these sources.

Mostly, groups listed will pay for the Choices made by those who edit and report in these forums. Their sifting through the excess of information to pare down that which is pertinent and vital is a huge time saver for the consumer.

The Elite Newspaper of the Future Philip Meyers
http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4605

The End of 'Objectivity' in New Journalism Era: A Good Thing?
Editor & Publisher
Joe Strupp
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003889304

CJR
Robert Kuttner
http://www.cjr.org/cover_story/the_race.php?page=1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_tank

Think Tanks As:
think tanks are little more than propaganda tools for promoting the ideological arguments of whatever group established them.
Or
because of the private nature of the funding of some think tanks, their results are biased to a varying degree. Some argue that members will be inclined to promote or publish only those results which ensure the continued flow of funds from private donors.

The Trusted Beacon Strategy:
 . Super-investor Warren Buffett is right when he says taking the time to educate a key reporter can help raise the collective I.Q. of the country.

 By the same token, we the audience, and our children have a media literacy imperative: constant learning about how to choose the trustworthy messengers in the digital torrent competing for our attention

How journalism will evolve: partisan, paid for, geared towards the professional.