Should Newspapers Get Out of the News Business?

Everyone presumes that newspapers will soon get out of the print business... and somehow make a go of it with online journalism. But maybe everyone's looking at the problem the wrong way.

Newspapers don't make money on news. They make money printing and distributing ads. News is what they LOSE money on -- even online. So, logically, newspaper companies should get out of the news business, and find something less expensive to fill that "editorial" space.

Besides, newspaper reporters, photographers and editors possess many invaluable skill sets, but shooting and editing video and telling multimedia stories, with audio and moving images, are not likely to be among them.

Which prompts some good questions: In your vision of the future, WHO will produce high-quality online journalism, WHAT will it look like, and HOW will it be commercially viable? We're all ears.