Sell Knight-Ridder Papers Back to Communities
The other day I wrote an open letter to Romenesko saying that too many people are critiquing the news industry without providing ideas to save it. Jay Rosen has come up with an idea.
At the Huffington Post he writes in part:
Here is my own solution: a community buyback plan, explained in these eleven points. I am told it’s impossible and will never happen. And that’s probably true. But no one has any better ideas, so here goes…
Point number 1:
Knight-Ridder announces that rather than sell to another big company or get bought, it has another plan: to break itself up. It will sell all 32 newspapers it owns to local buyers who will pay a premium for the opportunity to own the local daily. If no such buyers are found to exist, there is no transaction. The plan is called the Main Street Strategy to distinguish it from Wall Street thinking.
Steve Outing and Mark Hamilton both pointed me to other bloggers with strong ideas. But I am not finished with my thoughts on finding solutions. Tomorrow I will blog a bigger plan. Maybe I will have to add the Rosen disclaimer: “I am told it’s impossible and will never happen. And that’s probably true. But no one has any better ideas, so here goes…”
