The Wharton School of Strategic Management at University of Pennsylvania has taken a look at the newspaper industry and concluded that it needs a new business model urgently --- or else it's gone.
Wharton draws the same conclusions others have: advertising declines are structural, people won't pay, but readership is strong for the content. It identifies the same challenges: how to pay for quality journalism when the business model is undermined by transformation.
Wharton examines several models for the industry: the philanthropic route, the niche route, the pay route, the participation route and the commercial route. All of them have their strengths and weaknesses, but Wharton has a reasonable grip and an optimistic outlook about each.
