Perhaps the Ford Foundation would pick up the NY Times, but they had better be prepared to shell out between one hundred to two hundred million each year to cover the cash flow shortfall.

The Guild own and operate a newspaper? Why would they need to have it non-profit? They could run it as a profit making enterprise and lavish all the dividends on themselves. After all they have always thought they could run a paper better than the owners. How many times have I heard them say the payroll was nothing but a big tax deduction.

This is all wishful thinking.

I believe this grand institution needs to face the facts & accept the change. No, embrace the change. Newspapers themselves possess some of the best brands within the communities they serve, and it is time they start thinking about what they want to be when they grow up. On-line news sources such as Topix.com and wiki news sources such as http://www.VillageVoyage.com are the future.

I attended an event called “Images in and of The Press” held by my college (St. Peter’s College,) held earlier today and, apart from an interesting discussion of the history of the press from 1750 to the present, the acknowledgment of the role of the internet/web was pretty much universal.

What I didn’t hear was anybody’s solutions. That’s because there weren’t any.

That’s why, the more I examine the evidence (and my own thoughts gathered over thirty years in the software development game,) the more I am convinced that the post offices of the world have a central role to play in the revitalization of the business of gathering and disseminating the news.

And I am perfectly aware that in Europe they are, or have only recently stopped being, in charge of the telephone service.

Its an institution which is subsidized by the governments of the world for a reason. Granted that reason is disappearing under the onslaught of the internet but only partially.

The postal services are also at a remove from most of the governments of the world so the meddling by those governments are limited.

I think that the postal service should be in charge of fulfillment for the various news organizations; granting access to the RSS feeds of the various news organizations for a nominal sum and be able to pay the news organizations based on the usage of their fulfillment from payments by the citizenry.

I know that some parallel to the Stamp Act can be drawn but since this would be voluntary, it wouldn’t lead to rebellion in the colonies. 🙂