Shirky has an elegant way of framing the "newspaper problem". He asks us to step back, using the broadly analogous invention of the printing press and the chaos that followed. Excellent read.

Clay Shirky is a true iconoclast. He examines the economics of publishing newspapers. He then explains why this economic model is broken beyond fixing.

Shirky summarizes many of the arguments that have been flying between bloggers, mainstream media, and Tweeters over the past few months (and longer). His analysis provides a broader context than most and helps reorient the conversation from "what is the Next Big Business Model" to a more productive "what might be" and "what can we try now" set of expectations.

If you want to know where the newspaper companies are going, don't read this article.If you want a good read which is interesting and gives you some idea of where they came from and possible places it might go ,enjoy.

This article Nailed it....Read it twice..

A timely topic that barely scratches the surface of what should be an autopsy.

It is well-written, therefore the reader takes it quite seriously at first blush. However, the writer mocks every suggestion to save journalism ( necesary to our civilzation) and insists there is no choice but to wait for evolution, or mutation, or something. He bases much of his argument on a story about a 14-year-old boy being able to successfully pirate Dave Barry columns once upon a time. This, he inists, proves there is no way journalists can charge for online stories, dispite the fact that many publications already do . The Wall Street Journal? --Oh who wants to read that anyway?" -- That's his argument.