Can Newspapers Be Saved?

Cliff Kuang published an article on fastcompany.com on April 15, 2009 pertaining to the question of whether or not newspapers can be saved by simply redesigning the layout. Past studies have illustrated success of a circulation increase from a Great Britain paper who recently changed its design aspect. Many people tend to think magazines will far outlast newspapers because it is appealing, something you can hold in your hand and relate to. So it should make sense for newspapers to follow magazine format, right? The downfall of the idea of a layout change comes down to cost issues. A layout change for the newspapers would be very expensive. Not to mention the increase of costs in color printing on every page, but is the expense not worth it. If the changes are not made, what price is going to be paid? Will we lose newspapers forever? Can a price really be put on such a staple in American History? Well some suggestions I can think of would be to move the entire source of paper to electronic versions. This way, printing would not even be a factor. If the buyer wants to print a hard copy, it would be his/her cost, not the papers. Also, if newspapers are not fully ready to let go of the printing of newspapers, they could have the staff on hand, or hire interns to redesign the papers. This would dramatically cut down on the costs of the papers. I personally think redesigning the paper is worth a shot, what does the industry have to lose? There is only room for improvement, so go for it!