Let me start with @Bernard Re’s comment: “Making readers in print go online to get the full, expanded, participatory, fully interactive story.” That’s just plain arrogant. It’s as silly to be thinking about forcing print readers to go online as it has been for news orgs to be trying convince folks who don’t want print that they really do. How about we start by asking them what they do want and go from there, rather than forcing them from one platform to another?

On that note, that’s why partial week print runs (like in Detroit) are dooomed. Folks who want the print version, want the print version. It’s an integral part of their day. And they choose it over online news, even though the latter is free. Yes, only about three days are profitable, but having a seven-day run keeps those folks around for the profitable days. You can’t just assume advertisers and readers will shift behaviors just because we want them to…

There it, at most news orgs, little overlap between print readers and online readers. So going to online only format also means you’re choosing between two sets of readers. The print version may be less profitable than it was, but it’s probably still bringing in more cash and profit than online. Why discard that?

To a couple of Martin’s points:

*Selling plants and real estate are a good idea. But this not exactly a seller’s market.

*I’m not sure how many non-newspaper assets MediaNews has. But I can say that in the Bay Area, the highest media consumption point for people is in their cars. We should be figuring out a way to get out stuff on the radio, rather than going away from it.

*For that same reason, commuter editions won’t work here. They’re better for highly dense urban areas. That said, I like the idea of reinventing the print edition to create several different versions. Maybe an afternoon edition that gets dropped for free in some of the cafeterias at big high tech companies?

*I think Cedar Rapids is one of the most important media experiments in the U.S. right now. They’re well worth watching, and I think on the right path for creating a new newsrooom dynamic.

My prediction, all along, has been that Dinky Singleton would declare bankruptcy by July 2009.
He just finished a beautiful game of poker with Scripps and got them to fold first and shut down the Rocky Mountain News.

But, even a monopoly in Denver is obviously worthless.

Now, I feel like a fool for renewing my Denver Post subscription.

While I don’t really think the Globe will be shuttered, the fact that this threat was launched after 50 positions were eliminated through buyouts and layoffs means the NYT is dead serious about doing this.

These are truly desperate times. There is zero chance of MNG making a financial comeback in its present form. There is little left to cut or consolidate.

The websites, particularly in their smaller properties, are still hamstrung by a lack of equipment and resources to do a credible job replacing the paper and ink product.

Without a radical reworking of MNG along the lines that Martin suggests, coupled with the needed investments in people and technology to pull it off, MNG will be the latest newspaper company headed to oblivion.

And, I like your new paintings.

Most newspapers will soon switch to one-day-a-week printing – probably Saturday – which still provide a means of distribution for free-standing insert on the weekend.

Besides, most papers make roughly half their money on a single day now – Sunday. If they eliminated the cost of producing the other six days, it could work out in their favor.