Does Moving Content Online Make Newspapers Viable?

Can you make an unattractive product attractive simply by moving it online? So far, the answer seems to be "no," at least for most newspapers with the salient exception of the Wall Street Journal.

Half or more of the circulation at most newspapers is composed of individuals who are aged 50 and older. This concentration means that newspapers on average have twice as many senior readers as exist in the population as a whole, and that, by logical extension, they are not engaging the younger readers that they must attract for a prosperous future.

There are implications here for the communications business as well. All products have a lifecycle. Several years we might have argued that legacy voice was a product in the declining part of its cycle, while VoIP was just at the start of its cycle.

These days, some of us might go further and argue that all forms of landline voice are in a mature phase in the developed world, and that mobile voice has become the replacement product, though mobile voice also is relatively mature in the developed world.

In part, it depends on how one defines the "market." One can argue VoIP is a new product, or view it as the latest version of an existing product. You would get different answers about where each of those "products" is in its lifecycle depending on your choice of definitions.

These days, I lean towards seeing VoIP as the latest version of an existing product.

Reflections of a Newsosaur: Make no mistake: Newspapers are still in trouble