Newspapers that for years "have treated innovation like a trip to the dentist," need to change their ways, writes Rachel Smolkin in the
American Journalism Review. With circulations falling,
costs rising and ads slumping, the ink-stained set is going to have to adapt or die. "You can give up, you can hunker down and bleed, or you can fight back," says Howard Weaver, vice president for
news at McClatchy. It and some other newspaper companies are indeed fighting back, Smolkin notes, experimenting with Web sites, free commuter tabloids and publications in other languages, all to
"lure additional audience (those folks we used to call readers) and reinvigorate listless advertising."
Read the whole story at American Journalism Review »
