From time to time I write on the economics of paid content on NetNoir.com. As NetNoir.com moves into more regular production of articles and opinion, I have had to deal with the daunting aspects of creating a strong revenue model.  During the course of the research I often read about the struggles that newspapers are having –trimming costs and increasing revenue.

As a result, I think that newspapers really need to focus strongly on providing great local news content, and stop spending significant amounts of money on opinion, even syndicated opinion, which is often the worst type of warmed over mushy opinion.

Instead, newspapers should be allowing local people to talk about local issues, views and ideas in order to improve the integration between the local environment and the newspaper’s service to the community.