A question for newspaper professionals

[Stoic]

I understand the pressures of the internet on advertising and classified revenue. But I have heard over and over again how profitable the newspaper business was compared to other corporate enterprises, something like a 17% return on investment in it's heyday. And, if that is true (or mostly), I understand how the big corporations and consolidated newspaper/media empires, in an attempt to keep the profits pouring in, effective destroyed the hand that fed by downsizing and laying off large sections of their employees when the newspapers started declining in returning those profits

The question is: is there a market for small publishers to pick up the pieces of these ruined enterprises and can we see a return of the "daily" that's more than a superficial ghost of their former glory.

All my adult life I've received two daily papers (if I lived in a town or city with two majors). I LOVE newspapers, but, in all truth, I've become so disgusted with them in the last few years I finally canceled my WaPo subscription and am considering dumping my Baltimore Sun (I live in central Maryland).

[Warpy]

1. Consolidation took away local flavor

in favor of centrally generated pap. Since that center was usually conservative, that cost them a lot of readers. Declining readership in turn cost them advertising revenue, especially those full page retail ads.

[Blue_Tires]

2. possibly

it could work on a smaller scale (and i say that as a former reporter)...

in a lot cities, before blogging really took off, some of the best investigative journalism was (and still is) done by alternative weeklies, of all things...I wouldn't mind seeing some of the better ones expand their content and circulation

[LiberalEsto]

3. I'm not sure

The price of newsprint is pretty high. Establishing a distribution network isn't easy. And right now advertising is hard to get, because so many businesses are going under or cutting back drastically.

On the other hand, there are lots of unemployed or underemployed journalists roaming around looking for work in their field.

Five of the six papers I worked for between 1972 and 1997 have gone out of business. The sixth demanded last fall that 40% of its employees accept buyouts or else the paper would be sold.

I've been working part time as a marketing writer for a small PR firm since 2000, but haven't had any new assignments since last September because of the lousy economy. I'd love to find another newspaper job, but I and my jobs skills are as obsolete as a manual typewriter.

BTW I live in Central Maryland too. Derwood.

[grasswire]

4. Union owned newspapers could fill the gap.

A resurgence in union newspapers would benefit this country in a big, big way.