In his Content Bridges blog, industry veteran Ken Doctor notes the return to profitability for many newspaper firms in the United States. A good thing, he says, but not time to return to business as usual.
Instead, Doctor counsels an assessment of the damage through cost-cutting and a realization that stabilization came with some impact on the product. He's hinting at reinvestment needs and certainly he's steering companies from diversions like competing with Craiglist or constructing paid-content models.
"Mostly, publishers must focus on the digital world as it is, 2010 around the corner. Digital as in laptop/desktop + mobile, with TV/monitor usage coming not far down the line," he writes.
"That means content -- high-end pro to smart user-gen -- and sales, reoriented for the local merchants' needs coming out of the recession. It's content and sales, sales and content well into the future, maybe built on a more solid foundation, maybe a real bottom.
