Saving The Local Newspaper

As I've written a couple of times, too often the "how do we save newspapers" issue is written as a content-based criticism (how do we make people like our product more?!?) rather than a focus on other aspects of the business. But, still, circulation declines some places are huge.

The Philadelphia Inquirer lost 13.7% of its daily circulation to 288,298. Sunday was hit just as hard, down 12% to 550,400. Daily circulation at its sister publication the Daily News fell 7.6% to 99,103.

And while obviously the internet is an issue, as are financial issues (big debt) facing some newspapers, it's also the case that there's probably still time to ask that question... just what will inspire people to pay 75 cents (or whatever) for this pile of paper every day? In an overwhelmingly Democratic city, it ain't Rick Santorum columns.