Too short to be a good analysis, this Business Week story teases us by pointing out that German newspapers continue to be successes. Still, it does offer some suggestions. OK, we can move past the nude pictures on Page 1 and racy stories (I don't think American readers are ready for that), but there is good advice in the story about adapting to readers, embracing the Internet, and providing exclusive material. Frankly, one unstated conclusion is that newspapers should be adding reporters and getting them out on the street instead of rewriting their earlier efforts several times a day to make it appear that websites are fresh. Exclusives are exclusives.
The author's conclusion that German newspapers are successeding because of "their embrace of competition" is interesting. As a journalism historian, I spend a lot of time looking at newspapers from a hundred years ago when they certainly embraced competition. You can't look at the Hearst-Pulitzer-other New York newspapers of the era without being startled at their push against the competition. Frankly, what was their business model? Offer exclusive news, comment, features. That sounds like a winning combination.
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