Several of my friends, many of who have or still work for newspaper companies have weighed in:

“Nope, not at all. Free content is everywhere in the world, why would I pay for news I can find elsewhere?”

“hell no”

“no becasue you can read free stuff online anywhere, why pay”

“That’s a big negatory there compadre’.”

Brad Thomas: What if it were local content that nobody else currently covered?

“shoot, i can get that right here on FB for free”

“That’s the thing. For people to pay, it must be something they can’t get anywhere else. I think this will only work in certain communities, however. Take Fort Mill, for example. There are 40,000 people (mostly affluent) who live in the township and, despite there being three newspapers that “cover” them — The Observer, The Herald and the Fort Mill Times — none of them provide daily coverage unless something big happens. I think this would be a great place to experiment with a pay-only model. And I think it would work.”

“police here in winston shot a bear not 3 miles from my house and i found out about it on FB before any of the media reported it online….it would have to be hyper-local, community interest content, but i agree that it’s possible”

Brad Thomas: I think the only way I would advocate paying for local content would be if it was expert analysis or some in-depth investigative reporting. Perhaps exclusive, time sensitive content nobody else has. And even then, I wouldn’t pay more than a couple bucks a month tops.

“I agree. There are so many magazines now generating decent content from a community human interest level. Some are putting complete articles online. Anything’s possible, but…sure would be tough to pull off, I think.”

Brad Thomas: So, what we’re saying is — we’d pay for certain kinds of content — but for all intensive purposes, no, we wouldn’t pay for the content found in a daily newspaper. Right?

Brad Thomas: I’m being honest, there is currently no daily newspaper in North or South Carolina that I would pay to read online.

“I will never pay to read a newspaper online…”

“That’s the way to go. It’s inevitable. It doesn’t make any sense to give away free news. People will have to pay to read news in the near future.”

“It’s too late. There are too many places where people can get their news online for free. The TV stations are taking over in terms of traffic and there’s no way they’d ever try to charge for content.”

“Charging for news is committing suicide for anyone who tries it.”

“You pay for the paper, you pay for food, you pay for gas, why shouldn’t you pay for online news? Reporters work hard to get you those stories. Shouldn’t they get paid for their effort.

Many newspapers already charge for online content in Europe and it works great because people are willing to pay if the content of a story is interesting. It’s gotta be local and it’s gotta be exclusive. But charging for online content is the future whether people like it or not.”

” …except there are PLENTY of folks willing to do the work in getting the news to you for free. It would have to be something magical, unique and in high demand for anyone to be able to charge for it. I just don’t see anyone doing that. It would take an amazing group of folks and an amazing amount of resources to pull it off.”

What do you think? Would you pay to read your local paper — as it stands today — online?

It’s then that the “old media” companies sit back and wonder how they can compete with companies that have little overhead but yet remain some competitive to them. The answer is quite simply to disrupt the disruptor.

How do you do that? By taking your products and treating them as equals. Many in the newspaper industry feel that their newspaper website is basically the newspaper, but online. That’s where they fail. Their website could be much more, but because many in leadership positions haven’t had the foresight to plan for necessary enhancements, it gave the disruptors a venue to disrupt. Sites like CraigsList.org, Wikipedia and eBay.com filled niches that newspapers used to fill in their print editions. Now, it’s easier and cheaper to find things with more relevancy on these websites than it is in the newspaper.

Where do newspapers start?

They have to look at the jobs to be done. What do people in our communities need, not just from us as newspapers, but in general? And the bigger question is, how do we make money?

Here are a few initiatives that will put any media company on a path to grow revenue outside of their core product with minimal investment while engaging and involving the community:

I) Community Wiki
Imagine having a resource that would be the end-all, be-all for your community. Historical information about the immediate region, information about local government, maps tied into a business directory via a google or yahoo mashup and other local general information like phone numbers for the power company or what the average water bill is in the city all would be information that local residents would seek on a daily basis. The wiki would be open to be posted to by the community, with the understanding that if something isn’t correct that a correction should be submitted to the wiki administrator. Imagine all of the information that could be housed and sifted through on a daily basis and all the traffic that would result from it. The possibilities are nearly endless. The traffic could almost rival the newspaper’s website itself.

2) Niche publications
One way newspaper companies supplement their advertising in their newspapers is to create niche publications or magazines to offer targeted advertising opportunities. By why limit yourself by simply putting a crappy PDF of it online or simply just posting the articles to a template? These niche publications are directed towards specific segments of the population who like to discuss and share information between themselves. To not facilitate that is turning your nose at thousands of page views a month. Imagine taking articles from your niche publication and creating a social networking site, complete with polls, forums photo galleries and video sharing. You would then solicit feedback through the site and gain insight on what is and what isn’t working as far as content in your publication. Readers will come back and visit stories they’ve already read to see responses other have left. That increases site stickiness, which in turn increases page views.

3) Other Niche Sites
And why stop at niche sites based on publications? Mom-centered sites have sprung up in nearly every community over the last two years. Entertainment sites continue to drive traffic for young folks that want to spend money. Sports sites get rabid and passionate fans visiting all year long, often several times a day to get the latest nugget of information on their team. With the new AP rules that are in place, a niche site with information you already pay for can drive more traffic with less work. User generated content is huge, so why not facilitate it? If you don’t someone else will — in your community.

Of course, all of these sound great, but how do they get done? With a shrinking newspaper staff, it’s not a good idea to put this burden on them. Let them focus on the core product. A new position, even positions need to be created to facilitate these new initiatives. The right person would understand the technical and content sides of the product. They’d have to follow the industry and web 2.0 culture, and would have to have the right attitude to facilitate discussion and invigorate the community.

These are just a few examples.

If you are interested in finding out just how you can achieve these and more, I am available to discuss a customized road map on where to begin and how to sustain it.

I added the widget, but then loaded something else — the new Facebook.com layout. I’d forgotten all about it.

From Facebook.com:

The new profile has finally arrived. To access it, please go to http://www.new.facebook.com. On the top of the screen, you will see the option to send feedback as well as switch between the new version and the old version. Over the next few weeks, as the trial version winds down, we’ll be opting everyone into the new Facebook.

In case you haven’t seen it, this is what it looks like:

New Facebook.com layout

Check it out at New.Facebook.com, for more information on the new design visit http://www.new.facebook.com/FacebookPreviews.

You can read the updates either on my right sidebar here or via Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/bradthomas.

Some of my favorite sites, at least design-wise are:

http://www.wickedlocal.com/concord

Homepage – Concord, MA – The Concord Journal

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/

The Boston Globe Online – Boston.com

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

IndyStar.com | The Indianapolis Star | Indianapolis news, sports, business, community, entertainment, yellow pages and classifieds. Serving Indianapolis, Indiana

http://www.ajc.com/?r=t

Atlanta News, Sports, Atlanta Weather, Business News | ajc.com

http://www.wickedlocal.com/rrstar/homepage

Home – Rockford, IL – Rockford Register Star

HOWTO: Import JVC .MOD camcorder files into iMovie, Final Cut or Convert to another format « Bassist among Douglas Furs

Adobe – Photoshop Express (beta)

ESPN – Carolina Panthers Local News – ESPN Local

eBay To Go

Salisbury Post | Salisbury Area Ad Portal

Post-Gazette NOW

Insoshi: open-source social networking platform in Ruby on Rails

Create Resizing Thumbnails Using Overflow Property | Css Globe

Silobreaker: Welcome

Chicago news, sports, photos, video, blogs, Chicago weather, business, travel, tourism, entertainment and jobs — chicagotribune.com

NewsVoyager.com

FOX Sports on MSN – NFL – NFL Draft Video Central

FOX Sports on MSN – NFL – NFL Draft Video Central

abc7.com: Bear attacks, kills animal trainer at facility in Big Bear City, Calif. 4/23/08

ID Selector – Making OpenID easier

Developer's Guide: Data API Protocol – YouTube APIs and Tools – Google Code

COVERITLIVE.COM – Home

Digital Web Magazine – Creative Use of PNG Transparency in Web Design

RaiseCapital.com is an online community where entrepreneurs can showcase their business ideas and capital needs, posting a text description, pictures and/or a video presentation of your venture, Investors can find dynamic, local, regional or nationwide investment opportunities with ease, angel financing, Angel investor, private financing, start up capital, venture capital

Grid and Column Designs

coffee2code.com » Blog Archive » Plugin: Author Image(s)

Goal Line Blitz – Beta – American Football MMORPG

Weblog Tools Collection » Blog Archive » Global Variables and the WordPress Loop

The Ultimate Guide to the WordPress Loop | Theme Lab

MediaShift . Digging Deeper::Traditional Media Ready to Elevate the Conversation Online — with Moderation | PBS

Dynamic Drive DHTML Scripts -DD Tab Menu (5 styles)

ESPN – Carolina Panthers News, Schedule, Players, Stats, Video – NFL

Netflix

flickrSLiDR – Embed Flickr Slideshows within Your Site

Category:WPMU « WordPress Codex

Publish RSS feeds on your WordPress site without plugins | WordPressGarage.com

WPMU Tutorials

1 Pixel Out » Audio Player WordPress plugin

index.html

WalkDesign.com

What's Needed in 2008: Serious Newsroom Cultural Change

GoodBusiness – Overview

FlashDen – Download Stock Flash, Audio, Video and Pixel Fonts

Smashing Magazine

CyberJournalist.net

ESPN Widget Center | NBA Widgets

Instacomment – Features

JS-Kit: Customizing the Comments widget

WP-United • Home

WordPress Theme Hacks

Home – OpenSourceCMS

Free Website Icons: :

Sony | Cyber-shot DSC-H7 Digital Camera (Black) | DSCH7B | B&H

ThinkGeek :: Micro Stainless Steel Digital Camcorder

Motorola V365 Cell Phone – Wireless from AT&T, formerly Cingular

Tutorial for Flash MP3 Player

Facebook Developers | Facebook Developers News

Web Hosting Talk – The largest, most influential web hosting community on the Internet

Forums and BB Software : Revolution Theme Support

Techcrunch

Go2Web20.net

play sudoku online for free — sudoku on a new level — sudokular.com

Weather, Local Weather, National Weather, International Weather & More | Reuters.com

MeeVee | Guide

Advertising Age

AP Online Video Network | Inline Video Player

BroadCam Video Streaming Software – Stream Live Video Over The Internet

Read/WriteWeb

WFNZAM

Zenphoto » Download

Get Rich Slowly

Integrating using the Ning Authentication APIs – Ning Developer Network

Crowd Favorite : Task Management Software | WordPress Magic | Custom Web Development

South Charlotte Sports Report

A List Apart: Articles: CSS Design: Taming Lists

Sony Ericsson – Mobile phones – Overview – W580i

Unexplained Mysteries :: Paranormal Phenomena and the Worlds Greatest Unexplained Mysteries

Engadget

The Georgetown Times | Georgetown County, SC Community News Paper

DVICE

Nextel | Sprint Power Vision Ultimate Pack

Clark And Michael

Rumors and Rants

MediaPost Publications Home of MediaDailyNews, MEDIA and OMMA Magazines

Photos taken in Salisbury on Flickr!

Ad Age Video Player

CHARLOTTE BOBCATS: MyTV12 To Broadcast 15 Games Locally

Movable Type 4 installation step by step with screenshots – SuperXM

Learning Movable Type | Tutorials and helpful tips for the Movable Type web publishing system

Oranged.net Software

Sony | HDR-SR8 HDD HD Camcorder (Black) | HDR-SR8 | B&H Photo

Media News – TV Ratings – Television Programming

Apple – iPhone – Rate Plans for iPhone

Creating a Business Plan and Attracting Investors – FAQ’s

Commercial Appeal : Memphis News, Business, Homes, Jobs, Cars, & Information

After the Fire – Der Kommissar – Music at Last.fm

Am I Right – Misheard Song Lyrics, Latest Additions

Market research & statistics: Internet marketing, advertising & demographics – eMarketer

DMNews.com – The News Leader in Direct, Database and Internet Marketing

Poynter Online

OpenSocial – Google Code

How I Explained REST to My Wife

I want to use my social network's APIs on an external website – Ning Documentation

IAB – Interactive Advertising Bureau

All American Football League

MediaShift Idea Lab . Ready? Here's My Formula for Online News Success | PBS

Amazon.com: RCA EZ201 Small Wonder 60 Minute Point-and-Shoot Camcorder (White): Camera & Photo

InternetNews Realtime News for IT Managers

AdReady — Build, run, and optimize banner ads

MarketingVOX – The Voice of Online Marketing

BuddyPress — Creating a Social Network based on WordPress MU

NewsVoyager.com

Traction Software, Inc. | Front Page

Movable Type Publishing Platform

Blogtronix Enterprise 2.0 Blogging, Wikis, Documents, RSS, and Corporate Social Networking – 1.877.BLOGTRONIX
Blogtronix is a secure Enterprise 2.0 collaboration platform that integrating blogs with wikis, RSS, communities, analytics, and corporate social networking. Blogtronix is the award-winning platform that’s easy to use, scalable and can be delivered either on-demand or as a software. Our applications range from internal corporate collaboration to global user created communities.

Movable Type Publishing Platform

21Publish – Multi-User Blogs for Business and Communities – Home
The turnkey solution to start your own customized network of blogs.

Dynamic Drive DHTML Scripts- Ajax Tabs Content Script (v 2.0)

Dynamic Drive CSS Library- Bold CSS Buttons

Dynamic Drive CSS Library- DD Color Tabs

Dynamic Drive CSS Library- Shade Image Tabs Menu

Dynamic Drive CSS Library- Chrome Menu Bar

Dynamic Drive CSS Library- Solid Block Menu

Homepage – Concord, MA – The Concord Journal
Homepage – Concord, MA – The Concord Journal

The Boston Globe Online – Boston.com
Complete coverage from today's edition of the Boston Globe newspaper

IndyStar.com | The Indianapolis Star | Indianapolis news, sports, business, community, entertainment, yellow pages and classifieds. Serving Indianapolis, Indiana
Central Indiana News – IndyStar.com is the home page of Indianapolis Indiana with in depth and updated Central Indiana local news. Stay informed with both Indianapolis news as well as headlines and stories from around the world.

Atlanta News, Sports, Atlanta Weather, Business News | ajc.com
Get Atlanta news, sports, Atlanta weather, entertainment, business & political news and more from the Atlanta Journal Constitution – we know Atlanta best! /

Home – Rockford, IL – Rockford Register Star
Home – Rockford, IL – Rockford Register Star

Breaking News | Headline News | Current – New York Post
Breaking news, headline news, current news – NYPost.com. Your online resource for breaking and headline news, current news on U.S., international, entertainment, business, and more.

San Francisco Bay Area — News, Sports, Business, Entertainment, Classifieds: SFGate
Find local news & information, updated weather, traffic, classifieds, sports scores, real estate, jobs, cars, food & wine, travel, entertainment, events and more on SFGate.com. Connect to the Bay Area community.

Chicago news, sports, photos, video, blogs, Chicago weather, business, travel, tourism, entertainment and jobs — chicagotribune.com
Chicago Tribune is Chicago's number one local newspaper for everything from breaking news and Chicago travel to Chicago real estate information.

Los Angeles Times – News from Los Angeles, California and the World
Los Angeles' leading online source for local, state, national, world, entertainment, and sports news. Plus jobs, real estate, cars and shopping information from the Los Angeles Times.

Spartanburg, South Carolina | GoUpstate.com | Spartanburg Herald-Journal
Based in Spartanburg SC, GoUpstate.com is the Web site of the Spartanburg newspaper the Spartanburg Herald-Journal, a merger of the former Spartanburg Herald and Spartanburg Journal. The site covers Spartanburg County as well as Cherokee County, Greenville County and Union County

Home – The Advocate
stamford advocate features local news business stamfordadvocate sports classified living and health

Connecticut News, Sports, Entertainment, Obits — Courant.com
Connecticut news from Connecticut's premiere newspaper The Hartford Courant. courant.com provides a wide variety of world, national, state, and local news. courant.com also features weather, sports, business, jobs, and more.

NHRegister.com
Read the New Haven Register for in-depth, breaking news about Southern and Central Connecticut.

washingtonpost.com – nation, world, technology and Washington area news and headlines

I wonder how many folks have ever seen a headline and said “I want a T-shirt with that headline on it … if only there were a way” ?

I dunno. I find it completely odd.

Check out PantherInsider.com for expanded coverage of every Carolina Panthers draft pick.