During an invitational speech last Spring, Fine proposed a series of reforms that could help newspapers recover. Newspapers should take a stand in their stories, stop chasing the youth market, and refocus on a specific readership. Fine’s perhaps most up-to-date recommendation: layoffs will only worsen the newspaper’s situation. Her last piece of advice was to forget about deflating stock prices and use this transitional period to plan future goals and reorganization.
Easier to say than do when the planning and future reorganization depend upon those dropping stocks and revenues. And what can a stock analyst know about running a newspaper?
Well, Fine has 12 years of expertise in the industry. She might not know how to run a paper, but she knows how to revamp a business, and in today’s context that may be the most important priority for editors. The ground reality being that newspapers must first mend their financial balances in order to produce quality content. Not the other way around, sadly.


Source: Toronto Star