Oct. 27, 11:30 a.m. The path of disruption: Did Newspaper Next succeed in transforming newspapers?

NiemanLabs reporting:
In any good Hollywood summer blockbuster, there comes a point where someone, usually in a lab coat, warns of a coming disaster for humanity and the need for one last best hope to avoid annihilation. For newspapers that moment arguably came in the fall of 2006, when the American Press Institute published Newspaper Next, a research project that attempted to diagnose the industry’s woes and offer a prescription for the future. Newspaper Next was ambitious, maybe even aggressive in its fervor to shake newspapers out of their decline. It wasn’t simply a report; it was billed as a “blueprint for transformation” and “groundbreaking research into new business models for the newspaper industry: new ways to see opportunities, produce sustainable growth, and reshape organizations for consistent innovation.”
Five years have passed since then, and to return to the movie analogy, you could say the asteroid has hit and now we’re dealing with the aftershocks. Print advertising revenues are still in decline and online dollars aren’t covering the gap. Circulation numbers are either slipping or flat. Healthier newspaper companies are looking to merge; the sicklier ones are in bankruptcy or slowly emerging from it. Newsrooms are smaller, and in some cases just gone altogether.
So did Newspaper Next succeed in its mission to reshape the industry? Not exactly.
 http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/10/the-path-of-disruption-did-newspaper-next-succeed-in-transforming-newspapers/?utm_source=Daily+Lab+email+list&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=f2cf5777e7-DAILY_EMAIL