I don’t think anyone doubts Varian’s view that only very specialized content will draw consumers in enough to where they’ll pay. The experimentation is taking place, albeit it seems only sparse. Most news organizations appear to have implemented some form of user-generated content by now, but sadly that’s just not enough.
Did they really think opening up comments on stories would make that much of a difference? Fact is, most comment streams look terribly stale when compared to the real-time conversations happening in niche communities and social networks like Twitter.
In my view, the best thing that newspapers can do now is experiment, experiment, experiment. There are huge cost savings associated with online news. Roughly 50% of the cost of producing a physical newspaper is in printing and distribution, with only about 15% of total costs being editorial. Newspapers could save a lot of money if the primary access to news was via the internet. Hal Varian, Chief Economist
On a brighter note, some news organizations have realized that information sometimes needs to be packaged in other ways in order to be valuable. The example I always use is Mint.com. The way they’ve used the aggregated data of their user base is not only creative but it drives interest. More interest is exactly what newspapers need.
As far as experimentation, I think that will come in the form of real-time curation and collaboration with citizen journalists and other hyper-local sources. The move to more open styles of reporting and media coverage will tap into an ecosystem of information sources that will provide other forms of advertising and e-commerce.
