Perhaps, I am wrong.  But, it is my personal belief that unless newspapers change the way they do business, they will die a painful death.  I can’t agree with Mark Cuban’s conclusion that that the media can just package deals together and people will buy it.  I liken this to putting toothpaste back into the tube.  Ever tried that?  Doesn’t work. 

Now that people have gotten used to online news being free, they are not going back.  And, under their existing model, they are not going to make it by just selling online ads and waiting for the cpm’s to get high enough to sustain their business.

I think that it will take a major restructuring of the newspaper industry for it to survive.  Ultimately, to compete, newspapers will have to compete online.  And, to do so, they will have to have smaller newsrooms and they are going to have to get uber-local like Pegasus News, a Dallas online newspaper that is competing – even in these trying times for the industry.

I think that the true answer as to whether they will make it lies square on the shoulders of the newspaper industry.  Are they going to be able to make the changes to compete or will they retain their existing model?