John C. Dvorak explains:

The problem with the subscription model for today's big newspapers is the fact that there is very little exclusive information of any real value. The New York Times syndicates much of its content to other papers, so there are alternative sources - not subscription-based with the same information. Why buy a cow when milk is free?

That isn't going to change, either. Paper based news is dead, because it's too slow. Paper based analysis is probably doomed as well in a world with Kindles, iPhones, and BlackBerries (et. al.). What does that leave? Going hyper-local could work, but I doubt it will work for print. The costs are too high, and the potential audience too small to support it.

Before I get the comments, I'm not opposed to print, nor do I have an axe to grind on this. Reading in print allows for more serendipity than browsing does (especially on small devices). That said, the audience willing to pay for that tactile pleasure is aging and shrinking.

Back to online news - how is that going to be paid for? I really have no idea. The ad model has problems, and I don't think those problems are going away. I suspect that what we'll end up seeing is a completely new set of models that harness what the net does well - probably with a lot of paid content. They'll span the range from hyper-niche to topics of broad interest, but that's about as far as I can see at the moment :)

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