Paid online content: "Still, some key questions have yet to be answered definitively: Will charging for online access simply cause readers to shift to free news sites? Does posting content free of charge mean that readers abandon the print edition? Or does it entice them to go out and buy the hard copy from the newsstand or to start home delivery?"

Local coverage: Professor of business and public policy, Joel Waldfogel; "In the last 10 to 15 years, we've had huge growth in national media. Consumers can clearly get better national coverage [from sources other than their local paper]. What newspapers have done and have to continue to do is offer more local coverage. That's the way dailies try to stay relevant."

Worries about innovations: Marketing Professor, Peter S. Fader; Newspapers need to start "engaging the reader in ways they couldn't do before, whether that means giving interesting pathways through the content to make it stickier or coming up with features that just couldn't exist in the ink and paper world. But it's still an enormous uphill struggle and the economics just don't favor them. In the medium-term, there's no way they can make the same revenue online as they do with their print editions. I do not think there's any kind of cross-channel synergy. The website isn't going to make somebody say, 'Hey, I'm going to buy today's paper.'"

Waking up to the new reality: "So, what is the industry to do going forward?... Papers are not going to disappear, but executives must recognize that the fat and happy days are gone; in stock-market terminology, don't fight the tape. More than ever, think smaller staffs, local coverage and, perhaps most important, younger readers. Don't dumb down, but take the needs of your readers into account much more than you ever have in deciding what makes a story. Accept cultural change in the newsroom; the role of the editor as all-powerful intermediary is waning in the eyes of Internet-savvy readers. Think multiple distribution channels; cyberspace is as much a friend as a competitor. Recognize that the reader's time is valuable but also remember that analysis and narrative storytelling -- not just facts and figures -- remain in demand."

Source: Wharton Business School