Posted on by Nick Montfort

The Future of Newspapers

If you want to know about the future of newspapers, you might look at the ones that are thriving rather than the ones that are struggling or collapsing. I learned recently that there is at least one fairly new, very successful newspaper company – Metro International. With a price point of zero for their tabloids, they offer advertising-rich layouts and tiny stories that (for clarity’s sake) don’t jump to other pages. It’s the newspaper equivalent of that gag on Suck.com where Terry drew a Web page full of advertising that had a tiny “content banner.” (Wish I could find it … but at least Suck.com is still online, for those who want to look.) Having recently read about this newsprint wunderkind, I picked up this weekend’s issue to see what they actually write Metro stories about…

My friend’s cat.

2 Replies to “The Future of Newspapers”

  2. I bet that the Metro has an amazing software platform that automates a huge amount of localizing and laying out their papers. My guess is that there is a central database of articles with a layer of editorial logic that filters and selects for local interest / optimal advertising.

    Not quite the “daily me” but maybe the “daily my area code”?

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