A little pick me up for my comrades still in newspapers

I had lunch with a number of my friends the other day, and it was amazing how dour their moods were. It's worth mentioning that most of my associates are business types, not the journalists whose plight has been well documented. The question at the table was if everyone was going to ride the company for the next year or so, or try to jump off before it went under. The resolution wasn't an if, but a when.

So here's a reminder of some of the reasons that you likely got into the business in the first place:

1. Newspapers manufacture a bit of history every day. Clearly Obama's election led to massive demand, but every day people buy the paper just to keep a memory for all time. I still have the papers for the day each of my children was born. People post clippings all the time on their fridge or other places. Restaurants cut out and frame their reviews. As of yet, nothing else is quite the same. Telling people to go to archive.org just doesn't cut it.

2. Newspaper advertising still works, especially for certain categories. Trying to shop for furniture online is still nearly impossible, but I still buy the paper every Saturday that I'm looking for furniture. If it's expensive to ship and very oriented towards in person sales, it works well in the paper. Many of the areas of traditional newspaper dominance fall in these areas. Autos, homes, jobs just don't "ship"

3. Some of the resources of the newspapers are a true competitive advantage, even if they aren't a monopoly any more. The distribution forces of newspapers are paralleled only by pure delivery services. Some of the long held relationships with sales are hard to supplant. Even on the Internet, the amount of content production and back linking from blogs is a tremendous advantage for search engine optimization. It's pretty rare to see a newspaper site with page rank estimate below 6.

4. While it's hard to remember in the current climate, news can change lives. Journalists can be quite an idealistic bunch, and some times only care if the one person that matters reads their story. They can also be a cynical bunch which is why they are so good at trying to uncover the motives behind changes. The traditional wall between journalists and business was set up to keep everyone pure and motivated by the right things. Indirect monetization was what fueled some great endeavors, even if it's the current malaise.

Newspapers still matter, and part of the heaviness in many of the critics comes from the hope that these once proud institutions will regain their swagger again. I for one hope they can make it through this dark time to the other side. It's this same idealism of journalists that led me to start this blog in the first place. It might only take one really good idea, executed well, to reinvigorate the news industry.