Can the print media be saved?

Strategy+Business has produced its model in this piece Reinventing Print Media. According to the specialists there, newspapers need to pursue four strategies.

The first is to develop deeper relationships with readers around niche targeted areas, building on the strength that lies at the heart of publishing, pretty much in the same way that Nike targets runners and other athletes and Diageo helps young people find bars. To do this, media companies can launch e-newletters, contests, sweepstakes or downloadable premium content. They can do things like encourage customers to share articles with friends and create a dialogue around it. They can steer readers away from general content to areas like product reviews or criteria for evaluating purchase decisions.

Another strategy is to create new revenue streams, setting up services that for example charge people to save time or build their connections. They can also sell products that can't be found anywhere else on the Web.

The third strategy is to reinvent the content model. That means not rewriting wire copy but using resources to delve into its implications. They can also become aggregators of free content, very much like the Huffington Post. The job of the mainstream media would be to analyze the material in more detail. Given the job cuts at newspapers that we are now seeing, that could be a tall order.

Finally, they can innovate with new products and pricing. The iPhone and Kindle are just a taste of what could be done.