Australian Newsagency Blog

But what if the old media dies much more quickly? What if a hurricane comes along and obliterates the dunes entirely? Specifically, what if TheNew York Times goes out of business—like, this May?

Michael Hirschorn poses this question in an article published a couple of days ago in the Atlantic magazine.  But rather than concentrating on the closure of a print operastion, Hirschorn looks at life beyond. 

This is what we should be thinking about, life beyond print or at least with a significantly changed print media product mix.  Newsagents give over between 25% and 50% of their retail real-estate to print.  In some cases, the monthly rental for this space is upwards of $10,000.  Do we have a fall-back (disaster) plan if, say, 25%, 50% or more of the revenue coming from this space disappears.

If the newspaper challenges in the US start to appear here, and some say they are already, we need a plan - just as we need a plan should our businesses be hit by any disaster.