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The technology of printing news is what is obsolete. When you get the paper it's not news anymore. The print product was already eclipsed by broadcast. But the problem with broadcast for the newspaper reader is there was nothing to read. You had to listen and in one ear and out the other.
The web overcomes that issue. Now you can read the news online and it is even more up to date than broadcast. What then becomes of the print product? I subscribe to the Wall St. Journal both online and print. I prefer the print product but the truth is I really don't like the quality of the journalism in WSJ. It is pretty pathetic. And since News Corp. took over, it has only become worse.
I also subscribe to my local paper. I get both delivered daily. When I compare the stories in the local paper and the WSJ I find that both rely primarily on wire stories for national and international news and all the major stories are to be found in both papers. Why then do I need the WSJ? For the breezy Marketplace section? Hell no. The stock tables? No. The financial stories that are not on the wire services? No because they are too old to be used for investment decisions and any important ones will appear in other media within a day or two. The fact is WSJ no longer has much of a viable purpose or unique positioning.
As to the newspaper business in general, I say it is now an art form and should be marketed accordingly. Who buys art? Only afficionados, collectors, and museums. The good news is they pay outrageously high prices.
So the future of the newspaper business is an elite, luxury subscription to a print product that is received by a small coterie of followers willing to pay top dollar for the vain conceit of being in the elite. Perhaps only a few hundred copies will be needed, but each copy will be produced to the highest standards of journalism and editorial integrity, lovingly hand crafted by a skilled team of printers and personally delivered to your door (or your yacht or your jet) by a uniformed courier.
You will pay not hundreds of dollars per year for a subscription, but tens of thousands of dollars for a privilege enjoyed and afforded by only the most discriminating news palates on the planet.