Small town papers remain strong – stronger (in terms of readership per capita) than many metro publications – primarily because of independent design as opposed to cookie cutter approaches. McDonald’s and WalMart have learned that modifying franchise and box store offerings for the sake of local individuality is crucial to successful operations. We take their ads, but don’t learn by their example. Instead, we blindly try what “Bob” three states over is trying, because if it works for him, it’ll work for us. It better, because corporate is banking on it. Why in the world are we surprised when these things fail?

We should also work to get away from using the same training for each and every paper. Janet DeGeorge has a post here; she is gifted in her field. She knows a lot about liners and how to pull in the bucks to keep the head office guys happy – in most cases. A couple of years back I attended a training that resulted in my paper changing the layout of the automotive liners. The sort changed us from year-based to make-based. That cookie cutter doesn’t work in my market. The folks out here in the boonies who are shopping the liners for a car are searching by price, which correlates most closely with year. Sure, plenty of folks shop by make, but they aren’t looking for a private party discount. Rather, they are the shoppers considering lease options and purchasing extended warranties.

When I voiced my concerns to the publisher, I got a “she’s been doing this longer than either of us” speech. I agree on that. She’s got a gift and knows what she’s doing on most items. However, I was born and raised here, and have a good idea on how poverty-level folks shop – and it sure isn’t by make.

(no disrespect intended Janet – I just know this rural market better)

Plenty of papers promote “local control”, but if that’s the case why do they all look the same? Surely ten publishers all over the US aren’t on the same page at the same time? Reality – they aren’t. And their readers aren’t either. Let them get to know their markets, and adjust their product according to reader wishes instead of using the cookie cutter. We can’t pull all the readers away from the online products, but something a little more localized – hometown – could be demonstrating better results. – Starla Nickel

If Stanford bought the Merc, think of the synergies. Professors always need a way to get their expertise out–a daily newspaper is a great option. Put a column from someone with great expertise and a good narrative voice on the front of each section. Professors need newspapers to do much of their research–they are the secondary sources that are used. So get students out there doing the research that makes things front-page stories. Double the size of the Washington Bureau and investigate everything that doesn’t make money; then print it, too.

I’m still developing this one, but there are a lot of great options, and it would save good papers from oblivion and give universities the role in the community that they should possess.

And can you add a comment preview button the next time you have gobs of time and makeover your site again?

As a reader, I’m a helluva lot more interested in hearing what an economist who can write well has to say about the economy than a journalist who interviews economists and quotes them but doesn’t really understand enough to figure out when they’re being snowed (a long-time beef of Brad DeLong. Ditto for law and other areas. They need to cede this territory to bloggers and concentrate on something else, like information gathering.

As for money, I don’t really have any answers. Advertising and subscriptions don’t seem to work very well for newspapers nor blogs except the top tier. Micropayments is one idea that always pops up, but I think it’s a ways away. I doubt the model of bloggers paying papers will fly either, because media outlets that charge bloggers will simply get linked less. I think the harsh reality is similar to that faced by the music and movie industries: the amount of money available in the field is going to decrease permanently. The best of the best will still get by, but for everyone else, the salad days are over.

But this is good news for consumers.

David – I don’t think the already-read-it folks are necessarily refreshing Google News or the NY Times site or CNN.com before they go to bed every night, but they might be catching the 11 o’clock local news, or a bit of radio on their commute, or hearing from their kids or spouses about as much as they’ll get the next morning from the first three grafs of a wire story that hits their doorstep at 5:30 a.m.

If you’re going to print a day-old story, there better be a local angle or a source I didn’t hear anywhere else, or a great photo, or a banner headline that makes me realize the importance of the story.

But yeah, I’m a futurist media obsessive.

As for the “bathroom test,” I’m not really a take-the-laptop-into-the-john kind of guy, and I don’t think I would do it with my e-paper/tablet/origami newspaper either.

But that’s just me.

Oh, and as far as the “sports agate” goes — you’ll pry my baseball boxscores out of my cold dead hands, but the “Transactions” page is a waste of trees. And keep your hands off the comics and the crossword — when kids do read newspapers, that’s what sucks them in. I started with comics, then sports, then the crossword.

Seriously, as recently as 1997, I was pretty much buying the New York Times to do the crossword on the subway, but got sucked into reading the whole thing on a regular basis. Funny how that worked out.