How to Save Newspapers

It’s a challenge and an exercise, posed by Good, a new magazine “for people who give a damn.”  You’ll find it in the March/April “Media Issue” on the back page. Couldn’t resist, of course. Since I give a damn, I gave it my best, putting together all sorts of my ideas on a single page. […]

You’’ll find many wild ideas here. Ideas to inject new life and energy into newspapers.
But here’s the most revolutionary, evolutionary idea of all.  
In one swell foop, it capitalizes on many points presented here: 

Job 1: Be less boring.
News is not the answer.
It’s time to empower the renegades on staff.
Dare to brainstorm the blank page.
Really find out what readers what.

In a single section, […]

Many readers crave more comic relief from the onslaughter (cq) of scary news. Humor columns and comics are traditional choices. Here’s another: Have a dedicated visual and lateral thinker whose mission is to concoct all sorts of amusing or fascinating short forms. Graphics. Lists. Charts. Quizzes. Photos. Mini-essays. For anywhere and everywhere in the paper, from business to sports to the front page. Could be […]

Imagine every day your newspaper had on its front page a little box labeled “Know News.” In that box, you’d find a single timely word, term or name with a simple definition. Could be old: Arraignment. Concerto. Insurgency. Or relatively new: Stem cells. Keylogging. Podcast.
Finish with a quick teaser or page number to a story […]