I like this column by Michael S. Malone, where he discusses both the James Lileks flap and the Digg.com debacle.
What I was interested in was his discussion of what Lileks and the Strib should do.
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune should simply let its employees go work at home or at Starbucks, sell off its building and printing plant, and use the resulting revenues to buy editorial space on Lileks.com.
Lileks already got more readers than the Strib, and they are certainly more loyal. And, of course, his site is actually growing. But best of all, his business judgment seems far superior to the clowns currently running the newspaper.
It's sounds squirrelly on one level, but makes sense on another. With the web, everybody can become their own reporter, but most blogs don't get much attention. This is where the branding of newspapers is valuable because they give exposure to writers who might have a harder time otherwise.
Allowing reporters to work from home without having to go to the office is a perk most people would be willing to take a paycut for. It would be like a world of freelancers, where reporters were beholden to finding fresh news rather than making sure they had enough facetime with an editor (I saw a situation where the boss wanted all the reporters to sit in their cubes waiting for his command, rather than going out and finding news...I'm not making this up).
As for editors, there's no reason this can't be done either from home or a much smaller office.
Regardless, almost all management would be unnecessary. So, those layers of "managing editors" and "assistant managing editors" would be gone. And fewer business people in newspapers might result in better journalism.
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