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I for one don't find this at all surprising and believe that the traditional print-media press should already be planning long and hard for what could be a major redesign of their business model.

As soon as some practical form of electronic display technology that can rival paper for clarity and convenience arrives on the scene, the newspaper, as we know it, will be dead in the water.

Sure, there will always be some sales of the bio-degradable version but the vast majority of people will opt for electronic delivery and display.

Most importantly, those who choose the electronic version are far more likely to be the affluent segment of society who have more money available for purchasing the products advertisers are pitching.

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Now the real problem facing newspapers is not that of producing an electronic edition -- most are doing this now through their websites. No, the real problem is leveraging that electronic edition in a way that can generate the same amount of advertising revenues as are currently earned from the print version.

As we all know, banner ads are a pretty ineffective way of reaching your audience and the current generation of highly animated Flash advertisements are just downright annoying. How are publishers going to get around this consumer-resistance to the ads they carry?

Right now a newspaper can charge an awful lot more for a quarter-page ad in its printed edition than it could for a quarter screen of display advertising on its website -- why is that?

Even more worrying for newspapers is that advertisers are wising up to the flexibility that an electronic medium can offer.

Why pay for the worthless "impressions" that occur when a banner ad for feminine hygiene products appears on the screen of a computer being used by a 60-year-old man? Advertisers want to pay for results, not worthless impressions.

This makes the job of generating ad revenues even more difficult for the poor old publisher -- because, as we all know, some products and ads are just downright boring and useless.

Will the subscription model work perhaps?

Hundreds of thousands of people are happy to pay a subscription to get Sky TV or their current daily newspapers, so why not pay for an electronic version?

Well the problem with this idea is that there will always be someone, somewhere who's prepared to offer news content for free, or by way of a solely ad-funded model. And, when the content is being delivered electronically, it doesn't really matter how big that other publisher is or where they're based -- you can still get your daily news-fix just as easily.

As I said at the beginning of today's column -- we're entering "interesting times" for newspapers. Hopefully they will respond with innovative ideas and clever new models. Unfortunately I'm resigned to the probability that they won't.

What do you think? If a really good reader was available (perhaps a foldable "electronic paper"), would you forsake your daily bundle of newsprint for an electronic version? Have you already dumped buying a newspaper for reading the same stuff online?

Would you pay a subscription to get your news delivered electronically?

And, what effect would the collapse of newsprint-based news delivery have on our forestry industry I wonder.

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