MediaNews to hold back print content

Another big media company is swinging to the "we're going to cut back on the amount of our print content that we give away free." Read the memo from MediaNews executives outlining that company's new strategy. A problem with assessing the effectiveness of this strategy is that the economy is limiting readers' ability to pay for news content. I just completed an interview with the Milwaukee Business Journal about magazines in which I discussed how many media consumers are cutting back all discretionary spending so it skews analyses of whether they don't like to pay for content or just are cutting back. I've cut back on magazines, for example.